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MARGARET STEYNE 

A Romance of the New Virginia 



MARTHA FRYE B 


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I 19 & (21 West 2Sd Street, New York 


MARGARET STEYNE. 


A Romance of the New Virginia. 


BY 


/ 


MARTHA FRYE BOGGS. 



MDCCCXCIX, 


* NOV 2 1 1893 



46595 


Copyright, 1896, 1899, 


BY 


MARTHA FRYE) BOGGS. 


Ait rights reserved. 


TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 



Iq'SA-o^ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. A Lawyer’s Visit 7 

II. The Journey to the Old Plantation. 21 

III. Margaret Enters the Home of her Ancestors 28 

IV. Henry Steyne’s Will 38 

V. The Eight in the Window 50 

VI. The Home-coming 55 

VII. Destiny 60 

VIII. The Walk to the Bluffs 66 

IX. The Moonlight Meeting 78 

X. Practical Geology 98 

XI. The Secret Room 121 

XII. Two People and a Rainy Day 134 

XIII. Lawyer Harris Contemplates a Change 165 

XIV. A New Guardian 174 

XV. A Man of Business and a Woman 190 

XVI. A Flank Movement 213 

XVII. A Lawyer’s Proposal 235 

XVIII. The Story of Henry Steyne 261 

XIX. Thorne’s Confession 280 

XX. The Renunciants. 302 

XXI. The Shadow on the Half-window 317 

XXII. New Neighbors 325 

XXIII. Do the Dead Live Again? 332 

XXIV. “How Stands the Great Account ’twixt Me and 

Vengeance ? ” 348 

XXV. Arcadia 358 



A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA 



A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE LAWYER’S VISIT. 

In the wane of the afternoon of a spring day a 
young woman stood framed in by an old-fashioned 
casement, and gazed aimlessly down the street. It 
was a narrow, unpaved street with irregular flag- 
stone walks on each side, and in its suburban 
freedom it wandered like a vagrant lane. 

It was a quiet neighborhood ; and the stillness 
was unbroken except for the voices of a group of 
small negro boys who played at mumble-peg on a 
vacant lot beyond, and disputed in shrill tones over 
their turns. A flock of swallows, with swift pointed 
wing, swooped by in spirited flight. 

It was when her eyes had followed them into 
space against the arch of dull blue sky, and come 
back to the dreary foreground, that they rested on 
the figure of a man standing in front of the house 
on the opposite side of the street. He did not be- 
long to the village, Margaret Steyne knew. His 
manner, as well as the fashionable make of his 
clothing, proclaimed him a stranger to Winston. 

“ Tell me, Miss Price, who can it be ? ” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Margaret turned her shapely head half round as 
she asked the question, then remembered that she 
was alone. 

The stranger stood looking about him in a per- 
plexed and uncertain way, as though not quite sure 
of the locality in which he found himself. But 
uncertainty ill suited his temper, and with an 
impatient shrug of his shoulders he turned and 
beckoned imperatively to the group of negro boys, 
who had ceased their play to watch him. 

In answer to his summons the boy nearest 
scrambled precipitously down the bank, in peril of 
coming to pieces were it not for the staying qualities 
of the twine braces and hat-band which he wore. 
But in fair condition and good time he arrived at 
the stranger's side, listening to the words of the 
man with a pleased grin on his face, a face which 
seemed by some freakish condition of nature to have 
been placed on the wrong side of his head. 

As they stood thus, the man in the dignity of his 
respectability, the boy in his tattered independence, 
it was a realistic bit of effect in the dreary monotone 
of the street. Then it was over for Margaret 
Steyne ; for the boy, in response to some words of 
the stranger, raised his hand and pointed straight 
at her, and the stranger had crossed the street, 
stepping with cat-like tread over the wet places, — 
for the red Virginia clay was damp and sticky, — 
and was coming up the short jonquil-bordered walk 
to the door of the cottage, before she had recovered 
from her surprise sufficiently to realize that she was 
to have a visitor. 

The web of fate which held inwoven the woof and 


A HOMAN CE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


9 


warp of Margaret Steyne’s life was unfolding with 
rapid movement down the path which her feet must 
tread. Did some prophetic thought whisper that 
the coming of this man was aught to her ? — that 
his visit was to influence her whole after life ? 

The echo from the clang of the metal knocker, 
which the man used vigorously, died away, yet she 
stood irresolute. She felt that she shrank faintly 
from meeting this stranger, and she did not under- 
stand the feeling. 

She half turned from the window, but glanced 
back at the little negro boy in the street. It was a 
simple, natural scene, a pantomimic ebullition of joy 
too deep and real for repression. With bulging 
eyes he looked at the coins that had been given him, 
shifting them from one hand to the other, till at 
last, with an ecstatic wriggle of his whole body, he 
thrust the money into his pocket, threw outward 
the palms of his hands, then down on the ground 
went the round, woolly head, and two small, black 
feet stood firmly upright. Two flat brown soles 
looked for a brief space straight up at the sky ; then, 
righting himself with a whoop of delight, he sprang 
away down the street to join his companions, who 
hovered expectant like a flock of predatory crows 
in the near distance. 

Then Margaret Steyne, impatient of the absurd 
fancies which had for a time dominated her and 
caused her to forget the grace of hospitality, stepped 
to the door, and opened it squarely on the back of 
the visitor as he stood on the step and looked out on 
the street. He swung himself impatiently round, 
facing her with a trace of annoyance showing in 


10 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


his countenance, but it was with the manner of a 
gentleman that he lifted his hat deferentially and 
inquired for Miss Steyne. 

“ I am Miss Steyne,” she replied with quiet dig- 
nity. “ Will you walk in ?” 

A glance keen and critical flashed from the eyes 
of the man sweeping from head to foot over the 
woman before him ; then he bowed and stepped 
across the threshold, and the small room looked 
smaller for his coming into it. 

After he had introduced himself as Lawyer 
Harris, of Richmond, he accepted the seat Miss 
Steyne offered him, though he lost no time by doing 
so, for he continued speaking uninterruptedly, 
going straight to the business he had in hand. 

“ I am an attorney,” he said. “ For nearly twenty 
years I was counsel and agent for your cousin 
Henry, the late master of Steyne House, at Wal- 
singham, Virginia. I came to-day to inform you of 
his death, if you have not already been made aware 
of it, and to acquaint you with the fact that you 
are his heir. You are the nearest living relative, if 
not the only one, and so inherit the old Virginia 
homestead and plantation where Henry Steyne was 
born, and where he lived till his death. It is the 
original home of the Steynes in this country, and 
has been in possession of the family for more than 
a century.” 

While the bearing and language of the lawyer 
was that of a well bred man, his voice, which was 
strong, was careless in its strength to brusqueness, 
almost to impatience his listener thought, and his 
manner said distinctly, I am telling you something ; 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


11 


please give me your attention and you will not need 
to ask questions. 

Miss Steyne felt that in this interview it was ex- 
tremely unlikely she would be given an opportunity 
to ask questions, did she desire to do so ; for the 
lawyer continued speaking. 

“ The formalities of the business are few, and 
can be attended to at any time. You can take im- 
mediate possession of your estate, if you so de- 
sire.” 

He communicated the information as though glad 
to have done with it. He seemed strangely unwill- 
ing to talk more than by reason of his legal connec- 
tion with the estate he was compelled to do. In the 
same brief manner a day was set when he would 
come to escort her to her newly acquired estate, and 
she would be given formal possession of the home of 
her ancestors. 

The railroad schedule was briefly discussed, and 
Lawyer Harris had bowed himself out of the room 
and gone before Miss Steyne had pulled herself out 
of the mental daze into which his visit and his most 
surprising communication had plunged her. She 
stood for some moments just where she had stood 
when the lawyer left the room, drawing long 
breaths, and clasping and unclasping her hands in 
a childlike fashion, the while, as she was sure to do 
when excited or moved by some strong emotion. 

“ Is it I, Margaret, or some one else ?” she at last 
exclaimed, giving herself a slight shake. Then she 
laughed a little nervously, and going over to the 
window threw it open and let the soft spring air 
ruffle the brown hair on her forehead, till it took on 


12 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


strange copperish glints in the light of the rose- 
tinted sunset. 

A man wearing a light topcoat was crossing the 
main street from the hotel. It was the lawyer, 
going to take the evening train to Richmond, as she 
saw when she looked. The sight steadied her. 
It was real enough, what had happened ; what he 
had told her was true. She closed the window, and 
going back to the hearth pushed the smouldering 
logs into a heap, for it would be chilly when the sun 
went down and the white mists rose over the flats. 

A folded newspaper lay on the table where the 
lawyer must have placed it. She took it up and 
turned to the date. It was a Richmond paper, with 
the date of a week ago. In it she found this brief 
notice : 

“ DIED: At his home, Steyne House, near Walsingham, Va., 
Henry Steyne, in the fiftieth year of his age. He was the descend- 
ant of William Steyne, of Colonial fame, and was the last male de- 
scendant of an old and honored family.” 

“ The last !” To us all there is a sad sound in 
the words, saddest of all when it is the extinction of 
an old family name ; and Margaret felt a tender 
sorrow rising in her heart for this cousin who had 
been her nearest of kin, yet whom she had never 
known. There had been a tragedy in his life which 
she had never understood about. She only knew 
that some sorrow had come upon him when he was 
a young man, which, it was said, had caused him to 
retire to his quiet Virginia home, where he studiedly 
had shut himself away from his friends, as well as 
the world, and where for more than twenty years 
he had lived almost the life of a recluse in the large 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


13 


house with only his two old servants and his books 
for companions. 

But the master of Steyne House had not isolated 
himself entirely from the world, nor from all friends, 
as was commonly supposed. For Lawyer Harris, of 
Richmond, came to see him several times during the 
year, often remaining a day and a night with him, 
rarely longer ; and he it was who superintended all 
Henry Steyne’s business affairs and managed his 
investments, becoming finally the only connecting 
link between the lonely man and the busy, restless 
world. 

The lawyer was on his way back to Richmond. 

Margaret Steyne sat in the gloaming, with an in- 
trospective look on her face. She was going back 
over her past life, with its shadows and its sunshine. 
Bit by bit, as an imperishable mosaic, it lay spread 
out before her to-night. Her father had died be- 
fore she could remember, and she was but ten years 
of age when the lovely, gentle mother whom she 
idolized was called from her ; thus had dark shadows 
fallen early athwart her life. 

When Margaret became doubly orphaned, she 
was sent, as her mother had desired, to a Northern 
seminary, which merited well the reputation it had 
gained as one of the foremost institutions in our 
land. For six years she had remained a pupil at 
this school ; and, though she was lonely and sorrow- 
ful for a time, it was her only home, and she grew 
to love it. Now, as she looks back upon the years 
passed there as a pupil, they seem to have been 
among the happiest of her life. 

She had no home, no kindred, no one who belonged 


14 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


to her ; and these she craved with all the strength 
of her warm, loving nature ; longed for them as 
she longed for nothing else. It was this pitiful feel- 
ing of aloneness that kept her from being quite con- 
tent with her life. 

“ There is ever something between us and what 
we deem our happiness.” 

One wise man wrote the words. We all prove 
them true. 

It had long been Margaret’s intention, when she 
should leave school, to return to Virginia that she 
might look up an old friend of her mother, Miss 
Rebecca Price. But here again fate held her in its 
inexorable grasp. North and South were at each 
other’s throats, and fierce and bitter was the strug- 
gle. All travel had long ceased between the two 
sections. Only those who rode, and fought, and 
shot, braved the danger line between North and 
South. With tramp of horse and roar of guns, the 
brave men of both armies were swaying that blood- 
red line to and fro, as the sea wind sways a ship’s 
sails. 

For five years longer Margaret Steyne remained 
at the seminary, a member of the faculty where she 
had so long been a pupil ; for, on the close of the 
conflict, the ways of travel were not at once re- 
stored. But as soon as practicable, notwithstanding 
the dreary desolation that lay like a death-mask 
over fair Virginia, — and nowhere else did the con- 
flict rage so fiercely, — Margaret carried out her long- 
deferred plan and came to Virginia to find the friend 
of her mother. She came straight to Winston, and 
from the friendly host of the hotel she learned that 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


15 


Miss Price was still a resident of that place. She 
learned, too, that her friend was not in the comfort- 
able circumstances she had formerly enjoyed. All 
here in this valley had suffered the stern fortunes of 
war, Eebecca Price with the rest, and from what 
had been a handsome fortune she had saved only the 
small house on the edge of the village, in which she 
now resided. 

Miss Price, born on a New England farm, had 
lived there till she was twenty six, when she went 
to Virginia to take charge of the home of her 
brother, who was unmarried and a prosperous 
merchant of Winston. This brother had died some 
ten years before this story opens, and Eebecca, his 
nearest relative, succeeded to his entire property and 
interests, and having become attached to the people, 
she continued to reside in Winston, where she was 
highly respected. 

Eebecca Price had a strong, decided face. There 
was not a vague line in it, and it typified her nature. 
She possessed all the practical self-reliance common 
to the New England people ; and in the trying times 
through which she had lately passed, she found 
pressing opportunity for the practice of all the capa- 
bility, resolution, and courage with which she was 
endowed. She was now fifty years of age, a woman 
of few words and many angles, but with a heart as 
true as steel. 

This was the woman to whom Margaret Steyne 
had come, and who, she laughingly declared, had 
given her a mixed welcome, yet the sweetest she ever 
heard ; for, on learning who her visitor was, she had 
exclaimed, “ I’m mighty glad to see you,” which was 


16 


A ROMANCE 01 THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Southern, and “I reckon I be as glad to see you as 
if you were my own sister, ” which was New England ; 
and when this large-hearted woman, with a warm 
clasp of the hand, reached out and drew Margaret 
across the threshold of her humble home, she did for 
the lonely girl what no one else had ever done ; she 
gave her a glimpse of home-life, a life so restful 
and unrestrained that it filled her with a new sense 
of the joy of living. 

To Margaret, whose whole life had been passed 
in the trammeled publicity of a boarding-school, 
this taste of fireside home privacy, this sweet, restful 
refuge from a world’s daily criticism and its daily 
demands, was a blessed haven where she would 
anchor her bark for a long, peaceful rest. She had 
a small annual income of which she could be certain, 
and she and Miss Price planned to live together. 

“ There is strength in union and courage in 
numbers,” Margaret had said cheerfully. 

“ A good motto to inscribe on our banner,” sug- 
gested Miss Price ; and this suggestion bore fruit. 

It was but a few days until this motto looked down 
upon them from the wall over the fireplace, in beau- 
tiful old English text. Another day Miss Price 
brought in a horseshoe, which she had picked up in 
the road because it would bring bad luck if you 
passed it by. In pretended deference to Miss Price’s 
assumed superstition Margaret seized upon it, and 
nailed it over the door inside the small parlor. 

4 ‘ It’s wrong side up, ” exclaimed her friend grimly ; 
u your luck will fail.” 

“ You are wasting breath, Rebecca. You cannot 
detract from my serenity of mind. Let it hang 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


17 


which way it may, its very presence induces faith 
in its powers to exorcise witchcraft and to stay ail 
evil influences from our dwelling. I feel safe to 
revel in my freedom,” she declared merrily. 

The sweet, bonnie face of Margaret Steyne, with 
its laughing bravery and its splendid spirit, warmed 
the heart of the old maid into the first approach to 
a hopeful happiness that it had known since the 
leaden years of war, with their burdens and despairs, 
had come upon her, and her heart overflowed with 
thanksgiving to her Heavenly Father for this her 
dearest and best blessing, Margaret. 

Here in Miss Price’s modest but comfortable home 
the two friends had lived happily for two years. 
And here Margaret’s good fortune had come to her. 
Unknown to her, out on the wide ocean, a ship was 
sailing, sailing to her ; and, while she slept, un- 
heralded and unwatched for it had stolen into 
port, the white-winged messenger of fate, and she 
was waiting now before the fire for the return of her 
friend (who had gone to sit with a sick neighbor), 
impatient for her coming that she might share her 
great happiness. 

Twilight had fallen softly and restfully. Dim 
shadows loomed up now where a moment before 
there were none. The wood fire on the hearth, flush- 
ing into a warm glow, burst into spikes of rushing 
yellow flame, which threw a flare of light over the 
form of the lone dreamer by the fireside. 

Margaret Steyne was called a beautiful woman. 
She was not only beautiful, but, what is more rare, 
she was a harmonious woman. Eyes and voice and 
2 


18 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


face and movement seemed perfectly attuned to the 
slight willowy figure, which was just above the me- 
dium height ; but her slimness and a certain graceful 
poise of the head gave her the appearance of being 
taller. The brown hair drawn back and knotted 
high on the head rebelled in little waves at the sides, 
a few short locks touching mutinously the white 
forehead. Between the straight patrician brows 
there lurked vaguely and illusively a short faint line 
which showed only under some strong emotion ; and 
below her brows shone her glorious brown eyes, soft 
and luminous as stars, with heavy lashes, much darker 
than her hair, that seemed to weight down the white 
lids. Beautiful eyes they were ; and they looked 
fairly at you when she talked, a peculiarity always 
noticed and remarked by strangers ; and Margaret 
Steyne was a woman whom one meditating an under- 
hand action would not look in the face. She pos- 
sessed a strong sympathetic personality, which im- 
pressed itself unconciously upon others, and was in 
a way responded to by the least imaginative and 
least impressionable people. 

She never seemed conscious of the power she pos- 
sessed over people ; power which in a vain woman 
would have been dangerous. But Margaret was 
without the weakness of coquetry, and strangely in- 
different to the admiration of men. Yet it is for 
such women that men do their bravest deeds and 
their maddest. 

Margaret Steyne looked in the firelight, with a 
soft smile just touching the sensitive mouth, for she 
dreamed once again of a home of her own. Dreams, 
which had always seemed but a vague, far-off pos- 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


19 


sibility, were vague and ephemeral no longer, but 
were fast shaping themselves into a tangible, evident 
reality. Just what kind of an inheritance had come 
to her she did not know. It lay in that part of Vir- 
ginia where contending armies had made waste and 
desolate so much that was beautiful. It might not 
be habitable, but she meant to make a home of it if 
that were possible; and it must be, she told herself 
courageously. She had now an object, something 
to work for. Her life would never again be purpose- 
less. Did she need an inspiration, it was coming to 
her out of the gloom born of the twilight. Rebecca 
Price was coming up the walk. Margaret opened 
the door. 

“Come in quickly, Rebecca,” she exclaimed with 
sweet imperiousness, seizing her friend by the arm. 

Miss Price glanced apprehensively over her 
shoulder. 

“ Why, there is no one after me, is there ?” she 
asked a little startled. 

“No, no ; but I want you, Rebecca ; I have been 
so impatient for you to come ; I want to tell you 
that after all these long years of heart-hunger and 
loneliness I am to have a home of my own.” And 
Margaret laid her head on her friend’s breast with 
a little sob, and clung with her arms about her 
shoulders. 

“ Why, Margaret ! whatever ails you? Of course 
you have a home. I’ve always told you so,” 
declared Rebecca, with decision and surprise strug- 
gling in her voice. 

“But, dear Rebecca, it isn’t that,” persisted 
Margaret earnestly, if not quite lucidly. “ Lawyer 


20 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Harris of Richmond has been here, and I am to 
have a home of my own. Can you not believe it ? ” 

But Rebecca Price was still silent, unresponsive 
through bewilderment. 

“ Sit down,” said Margaret, who saw dimly 
through a mist of tears, “ and I will tell you about 
it. ” And putting her hands on her friend’s shoulders, 
she pushed her with gentle violence into a seat. 

When Miss Price had heard all there was to tell, 
all that Margaret herself knew, — which was so 
little, yet so much, — her heart responded in instant 
sympathy with her friend’s joy, and her congratu- 
lations were warmly spoken and heartfelt. Yet 
she could but wonder what manner of man this 
Lawyer Harris could be, and wished most sincerely 
that she might have been present at the interview 
between him and Margaret. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


21 


II. 

THE JOURNEY TO THE OLD PLANTATION. 

The next day but one after the lawyer had called 
on Margaret was the time set for their visit to her 
new possessions. Lawyer Harris would come up 
from Richmond by the early train. She, with Miss 
Price, was to meet him at the railway junction ; 
and together they would go on to the old planta- 
tion, where Margaret would be given legal posses- 
sion of her estate. 

To the dismay of both Margaret and Miss Price, 
the latter was very unexpectedly detained as a 
witness in court in an unimportant case to be tried 
that day. But Margaret knew that she could not 
disappoint the lawyer in a matter of this kind. She 
would go alone, she said ; and for Margaret to 
resolve that it was right to do a thing was the 
earnest of its doing. 

It was early wdien she came out of the door 
and down the steps ; then she paused to look about 
her and up at the sky, exclaiming : 

“‘What’s in the air? Some subtle spirit runs through all my 
veins ; 

Hope seems to ride this morning on the wind, and joy out- 
shines the sun.’ 

“Was the poet inspired by just such a day as 
this when he wrote these lines, I wonder ? ” she 
murmured. For it was a glorious day that she was 


22 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


to have for her journey. There had been a soft- 
falling rain in the night ; with the sunrise had 
sprung up a sweet spring wind, and there was a 
scud of torn clouds across a brilliant blue sky ; 
while in the valley the white mists, stretching 
ribbon-like down its length, rose transparent and 
wavering, till turned into a golden haze by the early 
sun. 

Margaret walked in an ecstacy of delight, with 
every sense of her being alive and in sympathy with 
nature’s heart-throbs. Why should she not be 
happy ? she asked herself, drawing in full breaths 
of the invigorating air which sent the blood tingling 
to her finger-tips. It was a joy just to be alive 
such a morning as this. 

The junction where the express and local accom- 
modation exchanged passengers was a mile below 
the village. The walk gave her time to indulge in 
the intoxicating fancies thronging her brain. And 
she gave free rein to them, till she felt like running 
with the wind in its exhilarating chase across the 
flats. 

She had time for this abandonment of spirit, this 
revelry with nature’s forces, and time to get back 
to her conventional self, before she stood on the 
platform at the junction and greeted the lawyer as 
he stepped sedately from the car and spoke to her. 
He looked a little wonderingly at her animated 
face, full of a brightness she could not get out of it. 

Margaret explained her coming alone in as few 
words as possible, with a little hot protest in her 
heart that she must speak of it at all. 

“ There is no reason why you should not come 


A ROMANCE OF TUE NEW VIRGINIA. 


23 


alone,” said the lawyer ; “ and it would have been 
not only a disappointment, but a serious inconveni- 
ence to us both had you not done so.” 

Margaret thanked him in her heart for the delicate 
way he met her explanation, but only said, “ Is not 
this an unusually brilliant morning even for spring ; 
have you observed it ? ” 

“ I had not observed anything,” he replied, “ be- 
yond the fact that there is a high wind blowing.” 

“ The air is full of voices ; Nature is surely laugh- 
ing to-day.” 

The lawyer looked at the young woman at his 
side as she said this, and raised his eyes to the sky, 
then swept them across the low, undulating hills to 
where they banked against the blue arch of sky, and 
down the valley to where the wind beat the mist 
before it till the warm sunshine kissed it up. 

He was a quiet, plain-looking man, this Lawyer 
Harris, not tall, not above the medium height, but 
a pair of firmly-muscled shoulders gave him an 
appearance of great physical strength. This much 
Margaret had observed on first meeting him in Miss 
Price’s small parlor. But now, as he stood quietly 
on the little railroad platform, with that admirable 
repose so marked in the strong, self-controlled man 
of the world, the impression was intensified and 
deepened. 

The north express had gone out and the local was 
pulling in, when he turned with a new interest in 
his face. 

“ You are right, Miss Steyne ; it is an unusual 
day. It is years since I saw just such a one.” 

After they entered the car, and Harris had found 


24 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


a comfortable seat for Margaret and lowered the 
window, he reversed the seat in front of her and sat 
down. She felt instinctively that he was going to 
watch her, to think about and make a mental 
analysis of her, as it were ; in fact, to be politely 
impolite. Well, let him make the most of his 
opportunity — and his subject. She was not particu- 
larly disturbed by it, yet very naturally found her- 
self speculating as to the result of his diagnosis. 
Would it be favorable or otherwise ? 

She wondered if this man had been her cousin’s 
friend, and wished she knew. Was it possible that 
he would dislike her because she was his heir, because 
she was coming into his home ? It seemed a foolish 
thought, but for a moment it gave her a feeling 
of disquiet, ti 1 suddenly, by one of those cyclonic 
mental revolutions by which we sometimes project 
ourselves backward or beyond, her point of view 
changed. It was no longer, would he like her? but 
should she like him ? she asked herself half curi- 
ously. This taciturn, positive lawyer was not 
magnetic ; his new-found client could not by any 
effort of the imagination think of herself as being 
drawn toward him. 

She almost smiled, now, as she remembered his 
behavior on his first visit to her, which made her 
think of one sent on an unpleasant errand ; and 
Margaret felt sure the errand had been an unpleas- 
ant one to him, though why, she could not in the 
least imagine. But if she did not like Lawyer Har- 
ris, would she need to see much of him after the first 
details of the business had been arranged ? 

This thought brought a ray of comfort with it. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


25 


“ A bondage can be endured if there be hope of de- 
liverance from it,” she thought. 

He had a rather good face, Margaret had to admit, 
as she furtively studied his features. The forehead 
was broad and massive above the heavy brows. A 
pair of clear, penetrating gray eyes looked from 
beneath. The thick, dark hair, closely trimmed, 
was not a little gray at the temples, although he 
could not be over forty-five, and might be several 
years younger ; a heavy beard is always deceiving. 
He had at least not reached the garrulous age, she 
thought. He knew how to be silent. 

Then of a sudden she began to speculate as to how 
that mind over there on the opposite seat was work- 
ing, and almost smiled. Did he think that she was 
going to question him, that he should wrap him- 
self in repelling silence as a defense against her ? 
She rather enjoyed the state of affairs than other- 
wise, and would do nothing to dispel or break down 
this conversational quarantine ; and so the journey 
that took a little less than two hours’ time was 
accomplished in silence. 

Walsingham, the station at which they left the 
train, was a short mile distant from Steyne House. 
Lawyer Harris had expressed his intention to pro- 
cure a conveyance, if it could be done. 

“ If you wish it for yourself,” said Margaret, “ I 
shall not object, but I should like to walk, for the 
wind, though strong, is invigorating and will not 
tire me.” 

“I don’t wish it,” he protested, with a touch of 
savagery in his manner vastly amusing to his com- 
panion ; but she demurely yielded to him the small 


26 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


traveling-bag he cavalierly offered to carry for her, 
and buttoning her long gray wrap, announced her- 
self ready to set out. 

The village of Walsingham contained about four 
hundred inhabitants, counting white and black, and 
was well situated. It would have been a pretty 
place but for the down-at-the-heel look it still wore. 
On the west, where the hill began its ascent, a 
wide creek came flowing swiftly out of the north. 
The bed of the stream at this point was dotted 
with boulders large and small, irregular and 
moss -patched, as they lay half covered by the 
water. Among these small rocky islands the water 
fretted and eddied into white curls of spray as 
it shouldered against them. A narrow footpath 
made up of clay and gravel brought one to a crazy- 
looking foot-bridge, which boasted no suggestion 
of a hand-rail. But Margaret declined all assist- 
ance from Lawyer Harris, and followed alone, 
declaring that it would be rank affectation for a 
native Virginian to hesitate at crossing a foot-log. 

Spanning the creek, lower down a hundred yards 
or so, was a new wooden bridge in a glory of red 
paint, by the side of which a clump of pussy willows 
stood guard. This bridge looked strangely out of 
keeping with the general state of forlornness every- 
where visible. It was new and whole, being the 
only structure in the village that could be so 
described. 

Walsingham had once been a fairly prosperous 
“ town,” as it was called in the days when the plant- 
ers hauled their tobacco there, and agents from the 
large cities came to receive and store it. The old 


A- ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


27 


tobacco warehouses, silent mocking monuments of 
that better time, stood empty now but for the con- 
traband negroes, whole families of whom had found 
refuge there in lieu of better quarters. 

When the war ended, and the smoke of battle 
cleared away from the valley, the people had carried 
the shot out of their houses, patched their walls, and 
waited ; but the old activity was gone, and nothing 
came to take its place. They seemed not to be able 
to take up their lives again. War with its resist- 
less force had trampled out the ambitions and 
prostrated the energies of this never too energetic 
people. 

The new bridge, with its strong timbers and fierce 
color, the first sign of a reviving interest in improve- 
ment, was the pride of every inhabitant of the vil- 
lage. It was as the boulevard to the metropolis, the 
favored promenade and try sting-place of all the vil- 
lage belles and beaus. Many a bright-eyed maiden 
met there the most important crisis in her life. 
There, above the running water, against the shadow 
of the swaying willows, lovers came to exchange 
low-spoken vows of constancy ; for when have lovers 
not believed that troth plighted over running water 
would prove sacred and enduring, that vows so made 
would not be lightly broken ? 


28 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


III. 

MARGARET ENTERS THE HOME OF HER ANCESTORS. 

The lawyer and Miss Steyne were winding slowly 
up the hill- path, when she turned to look about her. 

“ This must have been a beautiful country once,” 
she remarked. 

“ Yes ; it was a well-favored part of the old Vir- 
ginia, and will be again, though it will be years 
before it is altogether restored,” said the lawyer. 

“In what direction are we going?” she ques- 
tioned. “ I have lost my bearings.” 

“We are going due south, and just around the 
hill there stands the old Steyne homestead. The 
plantation lies south and east of the house. It has 
not been cultivated for many years. Even before 
the war it lay idle, but it has had better care than 
the average plantation about here, and does not 
look so neglected,” the lawyer said, in tones that 
sounded somewhat less depressing, though not quite 
encouraging. 

“ Is the house closed ? Is there no one there to 
receive us ? ” Margaret asked at last, in despair of 
his volunteering any further information about her 
affairs. 

“ Certainly, there is some one to receive us. The 
two old colored people, Henry's servants, who have 
lived there for twenty-five years, have charge of the 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


29 


house. Had I not told you so 'i ” he asked, looking 
round at her as she walked by his side. 

U I believe not,” she said briefly. She had ob- 
served that in speaking of her cousin, he had called 
him Henry. 

66 Of course,” resumed the lawyer, “'the house 
is practically closed and made secure, everything 
being left to your decision. Your power is abso- 
lute.” 

They were ascending the hill by a footpath, which, 
though steeper, was a short cut, and led to the side 
of the house, whence, through a gate in the stone 
wall, it crossed the old-fashioned garden, to the door. 

The wind was strong on the hill and came sweep- 
ing out of the south against them ; but Margaret 
was a good walker and was not fatigued when a 
turn in the path brought them around the shoulder 
of the hill and in sight of Steyne House. She 
stopped at once and stood quietly looking at the 
old historic building which had been the home of 
her people for more than a century. Surprise held 
her silent, for the place showed none of the ravages 
of war such as she had seen everywhere. Instead, 
the fine old house lay quiet and imposing in the 
morning light. It was large and rambling, yet its 
easy style of architecture did not detract from its 
strength. It was a combination of old Colonial and 
Southern, having been built before the war of the 
Eevolution : and later the wide, luxurious verandas, 
which are features of all Southern homes, had been 
added, giving to the whole an air of generous com- 
fort. They were beautifully garlanded now, these 
wide, roomy verandas, with the . hardy Virginia 


30 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


creeper, which flourishes nowhere else so luxuri- 
antly as on its native soil. The numerous windows 
with their small panes of glass gave to the uncon- 
ventional old house a cheery, twinkling look, which 
inspired a feeling of good-fellowship. It had been ■ 
painted many years previously a warm dark red, and 
time had mellowed the gray roof and tinted sides | 
into a complete harmony with its surroundings, t 
till there seemed a kinship running through all. 

This picturesque old house stood out in full relief 
against a strip of wood, which was full this April 
morning of the wonder of growing, radiant in robe 
of delicate green, the green of tender leaf and burst- 
ing bud, which caught the full sunshine. The old 
orchard, where only a few gnarled, twisted trees 
kept watch like sentinels on a deserted plain ; the 
paddock, the roomy, irregular garden, which en- 
croached on the lawn with its clumps of odorous 
shrubs, — all were surrounded by low stone walls, 
gray and lichen-grown, broad and sturdy, with here 
and there a wild vine trailing along the top. 

Small wicket gates, like openings in a wall of 
defense, led out of the yard into the orchard and the 
bit of pasture lying between the house and the green 
wood. It was because of these sturdy, picturesque 
fences, which could not be converted into heat and 
light, that the place had suffered so little from the 
small detachments of troops and scouting parties 
from both armies, which had occasionally crossed 
the old plantation in those days of forced marches 
and midnight rides. 

The perspective of the soft-toned picture was a 
chain of mountains, which in all their strength and 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


31 


grandeur of outline swung within a half league of 
the old house, then bent sharply away again in a 
long sweep of misty softness. 

This was Margaret’s home, with all the glamour 
of the new season enveloping it. She stood gazing 
upon it with eyes that were bright and warm, her 
soul filled with its restful beauty, her heart over- 
flowing with gratitude to God, that the supreme wish 
of her heart had been granted her, and so generously, 
when she would have been happy with so little. 

She gave no heed to her companion’s presence. 
The silent, ungenial man no longer exerted a re- 
pressive power over her spirit. She forgot to think 
of him. She cared not that he narrowly watched 
her face, striving to read her inmost thoughts as 
they shaped themselves in her mind, to seize every 
emotion of her soul as it spoke from her eyes. Would 
the stern, silent, intense man accomplish the pur- 
pose he had in his heart ? At last she turned and 
looked at him. 

“I am sure I shall like it,” she said heartily. 

But her companion turned, and led the way to the 
wicket gate without speaking. 

They passed through the narrow primitive gate 
and up the lilac-bordered path of the garden. An 
old black woman had appeared in the doorway, and 
seeing them, came on till she stood at the head of 
the walk, where courtseying and smiling she waited 
for them to come up ; a typical old aunty of ante- 
bellum days, thrifty and tidy she looked in bright 
turban and stiffly starched apron of blue- and- white 
check, the hem of which touched the graveled walk 
with every genuflection. 


32 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ Good-mornings Hagar; I’ve brought you com- 
pany to-day,” said Lawyer Harris, speaking famil- 
iarly to the old servant. 

“So ye has, Marse Ha’is, an’ I’s glad ter see ye, 
monst’us glad. I hope ye cum t’ stay a right sma’t 
spell. Hit’s pow’ful lon’soum-lak up heah now.” 

The good-natured face was a heartening sight to 
the new mistress. The cordial welcome might all be 
meant for the lawyer, but she appropriated a share 
of it to herself, and felt the happier for it. 

“Yes, ’tis powu’ful still up heah, and de days 
’peah so long,” the old woman rambled on as she 
preceded them around to the front door, which she 
threw wide for the unexpected guests ; and with a 
swelling heart Margaret entered the home of her 
ancestors. 

There had been an estrangement between her 
father and the father of Henry Steyne, and though 
the brothers both regretted and forgave it before 
the death of the elder, the delicate, sensitive sister- 
in-law never visited there ; so that, until to-day, 
when she entered it as her own home, Margaret had 
never looked upon the old house. 

“Will you sit here, Miss Steyne, till the library is 
opened and a fire laid ? ” said the lawyer ; and leav- 
ing he followed to give Hagar instructions. 

Margaret found a seat and looked about her. It 
was a hall that greeted you with largest welcome, 
and she was glad of it to-day — wide and generous, 
strong and symmetrical in effect, from the heavy oak 
beams of the ceiling to the wide, luxurious stairs, 
which seemed to glide rather than walk to the floor 
above. A tall eight-day clock, in a carved case of 




A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


33 


the same wood, standing primly against the wall, 
ticked in a loud and friendly fashion that did her 
heart good ; for, if there was one thing that Mar- 
garet liked, it was a clock that ticked emphatically 
and tolled the hours loudly and clearly that all might 
hear ; and she smiled up at the friendly face now as 
it ceased the hour stroke. It was a cheerful-faced 
clock, such as were fashioned by the ancient crafts- 
men. A mimic sun radiant* in gold peeped over the 
top of the dial, keeping an eye seemingly on the 
slender crescent moon below, which appeared to be 
ever slipping out of sight, yet did not. The whole 
hall had a sweet old-time look that breathed of 
other days. 

The lawyer returned shortly, and stood gazing 
moodily through the open doorway. The green-girt 
hill undulating away in soft waves to the valley, was 
a pretty sight at any time. To-day the tender ra- 
diance of spring was upon it, and across its surface 
the sun chased the cloud-shadows in mad merriment. 
But its freshness and sweetness brought no light 
to the eye of the gloomy-browed man gazing out 
upon it. 

It was not an easy face to read, but surely, Mar- 
garet thought, there was a hint of sadness about the 
firm mouth. Had he been fond of her cousin, the 
former master here ? She found herself returning 
to this point with annoying persistency, found her- 
self groping after this keynote, which slipped away 
from her just as persistently, as she sought in the 
actions of the lawyer evidence to confirm or disprove 
the theories her fancy wove. “ When I was a child 
I asked questions if I wanted to know anything ; 

3 


34 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


why not try it now ? 55 she mused ; and the thought 
itself was half a dare. 

“ Mr. Harris, did you know my cousin well? 
Were you his friend ?” she asked in that straight- 
forward manner peculiar to her, which always 
brought an answer to what she asked. 

The lawyer, who had turned at the first sound of 
her voice, came and seated himself on the wide settle 
by her side. 

“ Was I Henry Steyne’s friend, or simply his man 
of business, you wish to know ? Well, I was both. 
We were friends before I studied law, and after- 
ward, when I located in Richmond, I took charge of 
his entire business, at his urgent request, and the 
new relation did not affect our friendship. I have 
passed many pleasant hours with him here, and miss 
him more than I thought it possible to miss anyone. 
Henry Steyne was the best friend I ever had.” 

Lawyer Harris had never spoken more truthfully. 

“ Then I want to tell you,” said Margaret, “ that 
I am going to make this my home. I became an 
orphan at an early age. I have always been alone. 
I have had no people, and no home. When I came 
back to Virginia I went to Winston, and arranged to 
live with Miss Price, a friend of my mother’s, with 
whom you found me. Now for the first time I have 
a home I can call my own. If you could but realize 
how much the thought of it is to me you would 
understand my gratitude to my poor cousin, who has 
given me such great happiness, the greatest that 
could come to me.” 

“ I believe I do understand now,” said the lawyer 
in his even tones, “ and I hope you have made a wise 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


35 


decision in making this your home. But come into 
the library ; you will chill if you remain here longer 
after walking ; ” and going forward he held the door 
open for her to pass through. 

Margaret knew that the lawyer had not sympa- 
thized with her enthusiasm ; she felt intuitively that 
her decision was not one that he approved. In the 
library she stood by the hearth, drawing her gloves 
off slowly. The lawyer had brought a chair forward 
for her. She did not sit, but looked at him calmly 
from where she stood. 

44 You said you hoped I had made a wise decision 
in the matter of coming to live here. Will you tell 
me why you said that, unless you meant to imply a 
doubt of it ? ” she said. 

For the first time he seemed to regard her words 
attentively, and it was with an air of apparent inter- 
est and candor that he replied. 

44 That was what I meant. I should not have ad- 
vised you to try it, nor do I think your cousin ex- 
pected that you would live here,” he said guardedly. 

44 Will you tell me why you would have advised 
against it ? ” she asked. 

46 1 would advise against it, first, because of the 
isolation ; the loneliness would be unbearable. I 
could not be induced to try it.” 

4 4 Is that the only reason ? ” 

44 It is the only one that I would consider, but you 
will need to take into account other things. First, 
the risk a woman would run in living in such a 
remote, lonely place. Then the expense you must 
be at to put the place in good repair ; for, notwith- 
standing it was put in tolerably fair shape after the 


36 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


war, when labor was cheap, it now needs consider- 
able additional outlay. And the income from the 
investments would not meet the expense of main- 
taining it. But I will leave you, if you will permit, 
and order a cup of coffee,” said the lawyer, with- 
drawing himself out of the way of further conversa- 
tion on the subject, having said all he wished to say. 

Margaret removed her hat, and drawing the chair 
farther away from the blaze, sat down to rest. 
The lawer’s discouraging views of her home-making 
in no way affected her spirits. Not a ray of her 
sunshine was dimmed. To-day her world was 
beautiful, joyous ; nothing, it seemed to her, could 
mar its brightness ; and she looked about the old 
room with the interest of possession and expected 
association. 

It was a large, square, low-ceiled, and companion- 
able-looking room. The painted walls were dark with 
age, the windows high and the panes small, but there 
were plenty of them, and the sun sifted through 
them in uncertain golden fragments as the broken 
clouds sailed by. A row of shelves that filled the 
wide space at the right of the fireplace held a good' 
ly collection of books, and some curious foreign- 
looking tabacco jars were pushed primly into the 
corner next the window, while on the top of the case 
rested a fine bust of Shakespeare. A wide wooden set- 
tle, the kind in use a century ago, lay along the wall 
underneath the south windows. A large square of 
wine-red carpeting on the floor supplied just the color 
needed to save the room from being monotone. Y et, 
without it, the room could not have been dull, for 
the generous old fireplace was a heartening picture 


A UOMANCE OE THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


37 


of itself. Immense brass andirons, high and mas- 
sive, with lions’ heads on top and lions’ claws for 
feet, stood fiercely on guard beside the strong jambs ; 
while high above the broad tiled hearth, shoulder- 
high to a man, was a narrow mantel-shelf of wood 
a century old, which, with an air of feeling the dig- 
nity of its antiquity, held itself primly aloft like a 
decayed gentlewoman with her chin in the air. On 
either end of the mantel were tall brass candlesticks 
of artistic design. In the middle space stood a 
small box of dark polished wood, with a beautifully 
carved hasp and corner- pieces of brass ; and to add 
to its appearance of solidity and strength, it was 
heavily studded with brass nails with octagonal 
heads. In shape it was not unlike a lady’s work- 
box, only that it seemed heavy for such purpose. 
But for years, almost a quarter of a century, there 
had been no lady at Steyne House. No woman’s 
voice but that of a servant’s had echoed through these 
rooms, and had the box been designed for that pur- 
pose, the owner must long since have found other 
use for it. 

Margaret breathed a sigh of happiness. Ah ! how 
she would enjoy this quaint old house, with its 
storied rooms furnished much as they were furnished 
a century ago ! Keenly would she delight in mak- 
ing of it a woman’s house once more. But no one 
of its historical landmarks should be obliterated ; 
none of its individuality destroyed. Quaint and 
old-fashioned it should remain as a tale of other 
days. She would in that indefinable way which only 
a woman understands bring it into harmony with 
her life and tastes. 


38 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


IV. 

HENRY STEYNE’S WILL. 

In the old library by the fire, Margaret sat dream- 
ing, and was fast slipping away from the present 
into an ideal existence, when she was suddenly 
awakened to the real, by the entrance of Hagar, 
with coffee and bread and butter, which she declared 
was “ only a ’pology ” for something to eat, until 
she should get dinner cooked. 

“ Ef I’d on’y a know’d ye wuz a-cummin’, ye 
wouldn’t a lied to wait,” she added in genuine 
distress. 

Miss Steyne sympathized with the old woman’s 
feelings in the matter of a surprise, and was assur- 
ing her that it was of no consequence whatever, 
when Lawyer Harris entered the room. 

Hagar had placed the coffee on a small table at 
Margaret’s side, and had gone back to her kitchen. 
Harris did not sit, but drank his coffee standing, 
with his profile in relief against the light of the 
window, and Margaret was struck by the resolute 
cast of his features. She was beginning to think 
that she should dislike this silent, self-controlled 
man. “ I hope we shall get on well together, if we 
are obliged to see much of each other,” she mused ; 
“but how tyrannical and altogether disagreeable 
he could be if he tried. What a bear to lead, if he 
did not want to be led ! ” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


39 


Her thoughts were interrupted by the bear in 
question, who shoved the tray away and seated him- 
self at the other side of the table. Taking some 
papers from his pocket, he looked over them for a 
few moments in silence, and then said : 

“I will now read your cousin’s will if you are 
ready to listen to it.” 

Margaret assented by a bend of her head. 

“ It is not a will in a strictly legal sense, you will 
observe : it is more a statement. Henry Steyne 
died intestate, and you inherit by descent. This, 
then, is really no more than an expression of his 
wishes, and you are not obliged to observe them ; 
that is, legally, you understand.” 

Besides the plantation, which was clear of en- 
cumbrance, there were a few hundred dollars on 
deposit in a New York bank, some bank stock, and 
some railroad bonds on a Northern line, which had 
been purchased before the breaking out of the war. 
These, with the homestead and the furniture, con- 
stituted Margaret Steyne’s inheritance. There were 
small money gifts to Gabriel and to Hagar. They 
had been faithful to the testator while he was master, 
and he hoped that they might remain on the 
old plantation, but he in no way made it obli- 
gatory on the new owner to retain them. So read 
the will of Henry Steyne. 

“ My cousin showed his kindness of heart by his 
thought for his old servants, and I shall not fail in 
carrying out his wishes ; he has been very consider- 
ate of what mine might be, and of my rights in the 
matter,” said Margaret. 

“To my mind your cousin’s suggestion was 


40 A ROMANCE OF TIIE NEW VIRGINIA. 

prompted by tlie belief that you would want some 
one to stay on in the house, unless you should desire 
to sell the plantation, which I believe he thought 
you would better do,” said the lawyer. 

“You understood, then, that he did not expect 
me to live here ? ” 

“I certainly believe that he did not expect you 
would live here. He knew that it would be much 
too lonely, if not imprudent, for a young woman, 
with only two old colored servants for companions 
and protectors,” declared the lawyer in his most 
suave but decided tones. 

Margaret flushed a little but she said steadily : 

“I am sorry he could not have known that I 
would not sell the old plantation, and that I should 
come here to live, and keep the old place in the 
family — for that is what I shall try to do — for many 
years yet.” 

“ I see that your decision is not assailable for the 
present,” said the lawyer, in a more acquiescent 
tone of voice. “Nothing but a trial of life on a 
lonely Virginia plantation will satisfy your am- 
bitions. You are very brave now before you have 
made a beginning, but if you should in time change 
your mind and wish to alter your plans, I can per- 
haps find a purchaser for the place.” 

“You are very kind,” replied Margaret, “ but do 
not think me more brave than I am, nor more rash. 
I shall not try to live alone ; I shall have some one 
to live with me.” 

The suspicions of Harris were instantly aflame. 
There was a flash of suppressed rage in his eyes, a 
moment of uncontrolled anger, which his companion 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


41 


did not see, for she had taken up her cousin’s will 
from the table to read over a portion of it. 

Had she heard the curse in his throat, or guessed 
the sudden anger that burned in his heart, she 
would have been startled, but when she looked at 
the calm, inscrutable face, it told none of the 
heart’s passions. Eye and voice had served a stern 
apprenticeship of many years to a curious and criti- 
cal world ; they would not fail him now, and betray 
what he willed they should not. 

Margaret laid the paper dowm. “ I talked with 
Miss Price about it, about coming here to live,” she 
said, “ and she will live with me. It will be just as 
it has been, and I could have no one who would 
fill the place so well. She is not young, and will 
not be lonely, though we be isolated and quiet.” 

“That will be an excellent plan,” assented the 
lawyer readily; “couldn’t be better, and I am glad 
that you have made such an arrangement. It is 
exceedingly fortunate that you can have her if you 
still persist in trying life here.” 

The lawyer’s tone and his prodigality of words 
were unusual, and Margaret looked at him a little 
wonderingly. “ I believe he thought I meant that 
I should marry,” she told herself slowly, “and he 
is mightly pleased that it is not so ; ” and for a 
moment the dark lashes swept the white cheek, 
hiding the amusement which shone in the brown 
eyes despite her self-restraint 

Had she ceased to be able to express herself lucid- 
ly ? she wondered, or were people growing more 
stupidly dull ? “ Dull or not,” she thought, “ had I 

known what was in his mind he would not have 


42 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


been so quickly undeceived, though I’m ’most sure 
after all that I am the stupid one. But why should 
he care about my marriage ? What is it to him 
that he should approve or disapprove ? ” she asked 
herself the question thoughtfully. 

She could no longer remain blind to the fact that 
Lawyer Harris was jealous of a new owner for the 
old place, of a new occupant in the home of Henry 
Steyne, and she was coming to fear that if the 
wishes of his dead friend and patron weighed so 
much with him he might feel it incumbent upon 
him as far as lay in his power to carry them out 
strictly. If it were so, she could not think less 
kindly of him for his loyalty to his friend’s memory, 
but hoped that his feelings about it would not be 
made an excuse for the abridgment of her liberty, 
or interfere with her unfettered enjoyment of her 
new home. She knew now that no difference of 
opinion must be allowed to create a spirit of antag- 
onism between the lawyer and herself, for on him 
she must for the present depend, willy nillv, for all 
the information and help she might need, as there 
was no one else to whom she could go, however 
much she might wish it. But her cousin had 
trusted him implicitly, it seemed, and why should 
not she trust him ? 

“I should like, Mr. Harris,” she said, “ to have 
you remain in the same business capacity to me 
that you held to my cousin, to counsel and advise 
me, until I shall have had time to look about me 
and to grow into an understanding of things 
naturally and easily, for they are new to me.” 

The lawyer, though secretly rejoiced, gave his 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


43 


answer with his accustomed deliberation and studied 
indifference of manner. 

“ I see no reason,” he said, “why I should not 
continue my care of your interests, since it is your 
wish that I should do so, and I have the business 
so well in hand. But we will postpone all further 
discussion of these matters till after dinner, as the 
bell is ringing ; ” and rising, he took up the papers, 
and with a business man’s habitual caution, placed 
them in the old secretary and locked it, taking a 
bunch of keys from his pocket for the purpose. 

Hagar, in best gown and turban, waited in state 
for them to be seated, satisfied that she had done 
all and more than could be expected of her in so 
short a time. Her face was one vast expanse of 
gratification and good-will, and she might well be 
proud of such a dinner, “ jes’ flung togedder,” as 
she expressed it. Brown, crisp chicken and broiled 
ham, flanked by a dish of flakey potatoes, hot, light 
biscuit, amber coffee, with peach preserves and 
cake. 

Margaret considerately complimented the old 
colored woman on her cookery and thanked her for 
the trouble she had taken for their comfort. When 
they were about ready to leave the table the lawyer 
spoke. 

“ Hagar, I wish to formally introduce you to Miss 
Steyne, a cousin of your late master, the future 
mistress of Steyne plantation. She expects, I 
believe, to come here soon to live.” 

Old Hagar’s eyes widened with the most intense 
astonishment. The communication was evidently 
unlooked-for, the situation unexpected, for she was 


44 


A ROMANCE OF TUE NEW VIRGINIA . 


startled out of her usual calm ; and forgetting 
training and courtesy in the surprise of the moment, 
her hands went up on a level with her face as she 
exclaimed, 

“ Fo’ de Lawd ! Massa Ha’is, hit ain't true ; ye 
don’ mean it, now do ye? Dis young ting our 
missus, I done tot ” 

“Yes, I mean it, Hagar ; it is all true, and you 
will tell Gabe that I wish to see him ; you may 
both come to the library in half an hour from 
now.” 

“ ’Deed, I’ll tell him dis berry minnit ; I’se mighty 
fergitful ; ” and old Hagar hastened away with 
what was for her unusual speed. 

The man and the woman at the table smiled as 
the portly figure vanished down the hall in search 
of Gabriel, her very headdress in a quiver of excite- 
ment. 

“Not all the king’s horses nor all the king’s men 
could hold her,” laughed the lawyer. “When 
Gabe has been duly enlightened she will regain 
her normal condition. I have heard Henry say that 
she lived ‘ to tell Gabe,’ and she does not often have 
so startling a piece of news to communicate, I’m 
sure,” 

“ What a depository of odds and ends and curious 
bits Gabe’s mind must be by this time,” said Mar- 
garet ; “ a sort of family scrap-bag.” 

Old Hagar hastened back to the dining-room 
bemoaning audibly her lack of manners in having 
left the room without being dismissed. 

The next half hour was one of suspense to old 
Gabriel and his wife in the kitchen. They felt the 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


45 


very foundations shaking under their feet. They 
might have to leave the old place, and that would 
be the greatest calamity that could befall them. 
The possibility of such a thing had never entered 
into their calculations. They had not planned 
about their future, because a change of any kind 
had always appeared so remote that it had not been 
considered or discussed by them ; and besides, it 
was not their way. But now, with the coming of 
a new mistress who was young, — which they had 
not expected, — much too young, they reasoned, to 
be content to live up here, they realized the danger 
of a change, and it would be like going out of the 
world to these two old people were they compelled 
to leave the plantation. 

Hagar had lived there continuously for twenty- 
five years, and Gabriel for the same length of time, 
except for the short period that he had voluntarily 
absented himself looking for the luxuries of freedom 
in the wake of the Northern army, which Hagar 
declared “ He neber would ’a’ done, on’y he was bawn 
in Ma’ch ’n had a flyin’ min’ ; ” but somehow the 
prospect, alluring when distant, had not proved 
sufficiently satisfying to induce him to prolong his 
wanderings, and he came back, as he said, “ jis’ 
’cos he couldn’t fergit how lon’sum an’ unpertected 
Massa an’ Hagar wur ; ” and with the crown of his 
hat in his hands he shifted uneasily from one foot 
to the other, unable to lift his eyes from the floor, 
as he stood before his master and his wife a self- 
proclaimed monument of unselfishness and devotion. 

All such sentiment, however, Hagar, with a sniff 
of derision, disposed of in two words. 


46 A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 

“ Gabe’s hongry,” she exclaimed, eying him with 
what contempt her placid nature was capable of. 

The master laughed, while Hagar took the run- 
away out to the kitchen, fed and cried over him and 
scolded him by turns, until he was reduced to a proper 
degree of humility and submissiveness and given 
absolution. Since that time Gabe had seemed to 
entertain a lively horror of any further pilgrimages 
after strange gods. No more straying away from 
the old home for him. All they both asked was to 
be allowed to remain where they were the remainder 
of their days. 

The fateful interview with the lawyer and the new 
mistress in the library after dinner, resulted to the 
satisfaction of the two old colored people. With 
some slight change from the former arrangement, 
they were to remain. Margaret Steyne evidenced 
to the lawyer that she had a mind and opinions of 
her own, and knew how to maintain them with mild 
firmness. The control of her servants must be in 
her own hands, and they were given to understand 
that they were to remain only so long as they were 
faithful and obedient, which you may be sure they 
promised with much sincerity to be. 

The day was waning, and Margaret, having had 
time for only a hurried look through the main part 
of the house, under Hagar’s guidance, stood waiting 
for the lawyer, who, with Gabriel at his heels, was 
coming down the path from the barn, having been 
on a tour of inspection of outside matters generally. 
But the last orders had been given, and old Hagar 
was saying : 

“ Ye’ll not disappoint us ’bout comin’, missus ? ” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


47 


“ No,” Margaret replied, “I will not fail. You 
may expect me one week from to-day, and Gabriel 
will be sure to meet us at the train . 55 

“No feah ob dat, missus, no feah ob dat ’tall; 
de ole man ? ud set up de night befo 5 to ’member it , 55 
assured Hagar. 

To the two old colored people left on the hill the 
change about to take place furnished matter for 
much speculation and earnest discussion, and old 
Gabriel, as he milked the amiable black-spotted cow 
that evening, and fed the little white bossie, talked 
to them, as was his habit, of what was on his mind. 

“ I’s glad ye 5 s so white an 5 purty,” he was saying 
to the calf. “ She’ll lak to see ye , an 5 put her li’l 
han’sonye, feryer truly am de wises 5 li’l calf I eber 
did see.” 

And the wisest little calf proceeded to attest its 
approval by bunting its fat pink nose in the old 
darky’s stomach with no mild enthusiasm. 

“ Hi dar ! ye li’l misch’f, doan ye be so fren’ly,” 
he remonstrated ; and though the old man’s chores 
were all done he pottered serenely about the barn, 
his sable figure showing in vivid silhouette against 
the red clouds banked along the western horizon. 

But Aunt Hagar’s voice calling to him from the 
back doorstep brought him to a realizing sense of 
his unnecessary delay. 

“ Gabr’l ! a’nt ye putty nighreddy to cum down ? 
’Pears lak ye’s goin’ ter stay up dar all eb’nen.” 

There was an abused sound in the voice, which 
Gabe well understood. 

“ Now jes’ lieah de ole ’ooman ! ” and Gabriel 
laughed softly to himself. “ She can’t no ways stan’ 


48 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


it, she mus’ liab sumbudy to talk to. Well, Idosn’t 
wonner. Dar’s de cat now, but she doan tak ter 
critters, pears lak ; ” and Gabriel gathered up his 
pails and took his way soberly down the path. 

“ I’s glad dat de new missus is cornin’, deed I is. 
Hagah’s pow’ful lon’sum now dat de ole Massa’s 
gone, an’ she mus liab some’un to talk to. A ’ooman 
feels bettah when she talks a heap ; hits good fer 
em, it seems,” communed Gabe aloud, with many 
a shake and nod of the gray head. 

He found the wife of his bosom sorely distressed - 
in mind. She had been unduly excited by the events 
of the day, and now in the reaction was under a 
desperate depression of spirits, and such an ava- 
lanche of woeful predictions and complaints met 
him at the door as would have driven one not used 
to them wild, but Gabe no longer lost his bearings 
in a slight squall. 

‘‘Now, Hagah,” he began remonstratingly, 
“ whaffor yo actin’ dis way ? Ef ’twazzent de wrong 
time in the moon I’d tink yo dun gone crazy ; I 
suttenly would.” 

But there was a tone of sympathy in the old man’s 
voice which encouraged his wife to an outpour of 
her lamentations rather than an abridgment. 

“I’s habin’ a mighty soah hea’t, Gabe,” she 
moaned. “ I knows de new missus is a lady, an’ she 
look good an’ kin’, but she am young and hansum 
an’mos’ shuah ter marry ; den she might get ti’ed 
of we’uns an’ sen’ us away, an’ we’ll meet a sorrer. 
I mos’ knows it, fer dar’s a misery in my head, an’ 
col’ wattah a-triklin’up an’ down my backbone.” 

“My, oh my ! ” muttered Gabe under his breath, 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


49 


“she’s in fer a out ’n’ outer dis night, de ole 
’ooman is. Ef I doan git her to bed sli’l be a blub- 
berin’ shuah befo’ I knows it ; ” and the old fellow 
spoke as soothingly to his troubled partner as one 
would to a grieving child. 

“ Neber ye min,’ Hagah, hit’s all right now. Ye 
kno’ dat eberyting alius do’s cum right, an’ ’taint 
good fer ye to fret no way. Ye alius feels poo’ly in 
de ebenin’, pears lak. A good night’s res’l sot ye up 
strong. Ye’s ti’ed, dat’s all ; jes’gotobed, an’trus’ 
in de Lawd. I'll bank de fiah, an’ tek care ob de 
temporal tings.” 

4 


50 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Vo 

THE LIGHT IN THE WINDOW. 

Margaret Steyne was preparing to leave the train 
at the junction. Lawyer Harris, who on the return 
trip had thawed out somewhat and become a degree 
more sociable, was saying : 

“ If there is anything I can do for you, let me 
know, and I will come up and see that you are com- 
fortably settled.” 

“ You are very kind, and I shall remember your 
offer, for lions may come out to meet me by the way 
where I had not looked for them,” said Miss Steyne 
cordially ; and bidding him good-bye, she turned to 
find Miss Price waiting for her. 

Lawyer Harris had but a glimpse of the strong, 
resolute face of the middle-aged woman who had 
come to meet Margaret, but that brief sight mystified 
him. “ That is no Southern woman,” he muttered, 
looking after the retreating forms of the two women. 
“ But what does it matter, since Henry Steyne did 
not do what he might have done ? ” And the law- 
yer resumed his seat and fell into a train of thought 
that was not all pleasant. How Henry Steyne had 
learned that he had a cousin living had been to the 
lawyer a mystery, but not for long. Old Squire 
Cranston had known of it, and the lawyer’s suspi- 
cions that the Squire had been the means of establish- 
ing her identity to her cousin and her claims upon 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


51 


him as his heir, were confirmed on the day of the 
funeral, when the Squire, with all his old-time 
courtliness of manner, approached him and said : 

“ You have, I suppose, Mr. Harris, found among 
the effects of our late friend and neighbor one paper 
containing his last instructions, and making known 
his wishes ? 55 

The lawyer bowed in assent. 

4 ‘ I am glad that you have, sir ; glad that you 
have ; for he seemed to fear that through having 
no one but servants in his house, the papers might 
be lost or in some way misplaced, and to prevent 
any such accident having serious results he prepared 
two papers and deposited one in my keeping. ” 

“ Yes, I was aware that you had a copy in your 
possession,” he returned. “ He wrote me to that 
effect ; ” and the lips did not falter as they fashioned 
the falsehood. “ And,” he continued blandly, “ if 
you have the paper with you, Squire, and will re- 
turn with me to the house, we will compare their 
contents.” 

And this girl who had just left him was Henry 
Steyne’s heir, the mistress of the fine old plantation. 
“ She is different,” he was thinking, “ from what 
I had expected ; many years younger than I sup- 
posed possible. 

“ She is pretty as a picture too, and a lady by 
all odds. Strange, though, she hasn’t married ; 
lover killed in the war most likely. Anyway she 
is a well dowered young woman for these days in 
Virginia, and her land will grow more valuable if 
it is only well managed. But what the devil does 
a woman know about managing land, a Southern 


52 A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 

woman at that ? She will be sick of the job in a 
year’s time ; I give her that long. Then — well, 
I shall get my way. There is more than one road 
to a place, and more than one way of getting a 
thing when you want it had, and Henry Steyne 
would have done well to remember that.” 

Miss Price had piled the wood high in the wide 
fireplace before she left home, and through the 
many-paned windows of the small cottage were 
bursting squares of rich Rembrandt light which 
seemed to lie upon the misty darkness rather than 
pierce it. In the goodness of her heart she had 
thought that Margaret’s new home might not prove 
all that she had hoped. It might not be habitable 
even, for it must have been near the track of the 
armies where bitter desolation reigned, and she 
might be sadly disappointed. “ I will make the 
house look as bright and pleasant as possible for 
her home-coming and if she is downhearted it will 
look cheerful and comfort her some,” she rea- 
soned ; and the tea table stood invitingly spread in 
the firelight. It was a warm heart that beat in the 
bosom of the undemonstrative old maid. 

But Margaret was not disappointed ; she came back 
with such glowing accounts of her possessions, their 
new home on the hill, that Miss Price caught the 
infection of her spirits to a degree that unsettled 
somewhat her staid, unimaginative nature. To 
what extent her bewilderment of mind led her she 
discovered only after essaying to pour tea from an 
empty teapot. Then she laughed, and came down 
to a sense of her giddiness, as she called it. She 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


53 


could be ready to leave Winston in a week’s time 
if that was what was expected of her, she declared. 

u We should not miss a day of this lovely spring 
weather,” Margaret urged. “ The lilacs are in 
bloom ; they were my cousin’s favorites, Hagar 
tells me, and he had a hedge of them planted on 
each side of the garden walk, tending and training 
the bushes himself till they meet overhead in a ver- 
itable bower of fragrance and beauty. I want to 
return to it before the fragrance has passed, and I 
want you to see our home just as soon as you can. 
I shall not be happy till you do.” 

During the afternoon of the next day Miss Price 
came in somewhat flushed and sat down in her low 
chair, fanning herself with her calash as she rocked 
to and fro. 

“ I have made arrangements for the house.” 

“ How did you manage it so quickly?” asked 
Margaret, who, though accustomed to her friend’s 
ability to manage, was surprised at the speedy 
results in this instance. 

“ It doesn’t take long to do a thing after you once 
know what you want to do,” asserted Miss Price. 
“ Sam Byers, who used to clerk for my brother 
when he was a freckled-faced youngster and wore 
jackets, which he ought to be doing still, is married 
and going to carry on a store here. He wants a 
house to live in. His wife is somewhat slack- 
twisted, I know, but Sam is honest and will do 
what is right. He cannot pay a high rent, but 
enough to pay the taxes, and he will keep up repairs, 
and that is all I want. I feel sure that my brother 
would have helped him had he lived, and I shall 


54 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


leave the furniture for them, as you say there is 
plenty up there. ” 

Margaret had said that the house stood on a hill, 
and since then Miss Price had spoken of the place 
as “ up there, ” and of “ going up,” till, as Mar- 
garet laughingly said, one might think they had 
immediate prospects of being transported from their 
earthly habitation to a higher celestial sphere. And 
as she laid her head on her pillow that night there 
was running through her mind like a rope through 
a slip-knot some lines she had learned in childhood 
from a school primer, and she found herself drow- 
sily repeating, “ Do we go?” “ Do we go up?” 
“ We do go up.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


55 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE HOME-COMING. 

Two ladies who had left the train at the station 
were walking slowly back and forth the short length 
of the platform. The younger of the two was Miss 
Steyne ; the other, her friend Rebecca Price. Mar- 
garet was going to take possession of her new home 
on the hill. Steyne House, so long silent, would 
once again echo to the sweet voice of a young and 
lovely mistress. 

It was the day appointed for their coming. Ga- 
briel, the old black servant, had not forgotten, and 
his good-natured wrinkled face was the first object 
the eyes of his mistress rested on as she stepped 
from the train. He was driving up to the plat- 
form in a light lumber wagon, drawn by a for- 
lorn-looking team of mules — a large bony brown 
mule, and a small bony white mule. The large 
brown fellow was stepping forward with long swing- 
ing steps, as though to attest his appreciation of his 
stilt-like legs ; while his little mate, multiplying her 
short steps with the earnest and laudable intention 
of keeping up with her mate, looked like nothing 
else so much as a dingey towed by a brig in a 
choppy sea. It was a comical-looking team, alike 
in nothing save bones and poverty of flesh. 

44 Is that the family equipage, Margaret ?” Miss 
Price asked, with the ghost of a smile lurking grimly 
about the corners of her mouth, 


66 A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 

44 1 think not,” said Margaret, laughing back 
brightly. 44 Though I scarce know what my pos- 
sessions are, I hardly think that span belongs to me.” 

But Gabriel had anchored alongside the platform, 
with profuse apologies for the rude conveyance he 
was obliged to bring for his mistress. 

44 I didn’t want ter brung dis lieah sort ob t’ing,” 
he declared, eying the outfit wuth high disfavor. 
‘‘I didn’t want ter ’t all, but ’t was jes’ an impossity 
ter get any odder, jes’ an impossity. Hagali sez, 
sez she, 4 Take de ca’yall.’ 4 But,’ sez I, 4 1 dassn’t ; 
hit’s so ole it done brek down, shuah ; hit ain’t been 
out’en de kerridge house sins long befo’ de wall.’ ” . 

44 You did quite right, Gabriel,” said his mistress, 
breaking in upon his lamentations. 4 4 This wagon 
is just what we want for our baggage and boxes. 
We want nothing else, as we are going to walk. 
Miss Price will show you our things.” 

The two ladies took the narrow path that led to 
the foot-log, the same path down which Margaret 
had followed Lawyer Harris a week before. In the 
past few days there had been heavy rains in the 
valley, and the water, which had then run shallow, 
now brawled loudly along the wide, stony bed, and 
crossing the narrow log was a little trying to a 
timid person. 

Margaret, who was in the lead, paused. 44 Here 
is one of our lions, Rebecca ; shall we turn back ? ” 
she called over her shoulder. 

44 No,” answered Miss Price, stoutly; 44 might 
bring us bad luck. I can walk that foot-log if you 
can.” 

44 Then come on, but one at a time,” said Mar- 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


57 


garet, making a pretty picture as with her skirts 
gathered daintily about her that they might not im- 
pede her progress, she stepped quickly across, while 
Miss Price followed more slowly but just as surely. 

Gabe, happening to look up, stopped short in Ins 
work of “loading up.” 

“Now, jes’ look at dem gals,” he exclaimed, in 
tones of querulous solicitude. “Why doan’ dey 
go roun’ by de bridge, sensible-lak ? Well, now, 
dey’s ober that,” he exclaimed in relieved accents, 
as they landed safely on the other side, “An’dar 
haint enny moah debilment dey c’n git into de res’ 
of de way home ; ” and from that moment honest 
old Gabe was convinced that these two additional 
members of his household were to be watched over 
and taken care of ; just so much more added to his 
responsibilities. 

“ Hi, Moses ! ” he ejaculated, as going slowly up 
the hill he seemed for the first time to realize the 
overwhelming duties of his position. “Tree wim- 
men to tek care ob ; hit’s no time to fink o’ dyin’. 
Gee up dar ! Get dem bones a-moobin’,” he admon- 
ished his slow-going team. “ Dis worl’ doan stan’ 
still.” 

The days passed on golden wings at Steyne House, 
while the new mistress wrought many changes in 
her home. Gabriel had done his best, surpassing 
Miss Price’s wildest hopes in the precision and neat- 
ness of his garden and door-yard work, but Gabe, 
Miss Price was to learn, was totally unlike the 
mass of his race, for whose shiftless ways he had 
the liveliest disapproval. 

Margaret, with Rebecca’s help, fell easily and 


58 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


naturally into the duties of her new position, and 
the management of her affairs soon came to be no 
burden. The settling of the house filled the hours 
with a pleasant excitement, and she was happier 
than she had ever been in her life. Going into that 
old house was like going into a new world filled 
with rare and odd things. Every day something 
of interest was discovered, some odd piece of furni- 
ture brought to light, some rare old china unearthed 
where it had been hidden away for safety ; and there 
were yet trunks and boxes under the eaves in the 
attic which Margaret was going to have brought to 
light some time ; but she should not hurry the ex- 
amination, for, as she said to Miss Price, “the 
anticipation might prove the best of it after all.” 

The mysterious-looking brass-bound box stood 
before her on the high mantelshelf in the library, 
just where it had stood for years perhaps. She 
called it the sphinx. It would not speak, and it 
stood there impenetrable. No key could be found 
to unlock its fastness, no way discovered to break 
its tantalizing silence, till to Margaret it had come 
to seem almost endowed with a sense of human 
knowledge and feeling. She could easily have fan- 
cied each knobby brass nail a living, piercing eye, 
imbued with a subtle mysticism, as it sat stonily 
looking down at her, day after day. 

“ I don’t believe I will ever touch the thing again,” 
she exclaimed impatiently one day, after a care- 
ful but disappointing search for a hidden spring — 
“ at least, not until I am sure I can open it.” 

“ There ! ” she exclaimed, giving it an impetuous 
shove back against the wall; “keep your secret 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


59 


while you can, for be it evil or be it good I will 
wrest it from you some day.” 

Was it a trick of the wind, or did a mocking voice 
echo down the wide chimney, “ some day” ? 

“Am I growing fanciful ? ” she asked, giving her- 
self a little shake. “ I need a modicum of Rebecca’s 
common sense and some sunshine ; ” and taking 
down her broad hat from the deer-liorns in the hall, 
she went out through the pasture, where the sun 
shone hot, and into the depths of the wood, where 
the soft star-eyed wild flowers looked shyly up at 
her from their setting of green leaves. 

The fragrant herbs from which her feet pressed 
out the odorous breath as she walked would grow 
more fragrant as they browned and ripened in the 
summer sun. She scented with delight their pungent 
odor on the warm, languorous air that met her from 
the unsheltered pasture as she left the wood and 
came out to the line where the pasture and wood- 
land met. 

Here stood a spreading beech tree whose branches, 
full-leafed and drooping, had reared a glorious 
natural bower. This was Margaret’s favorite rest- 
ing-place. A comfortable seat had been placed there 
for her convenience. Nature, too, in her beneficence 
and for her especial pleasure, it seemed to Margaret, 
had contrived a most cunning cabinet. About 
shoulder high from the ground there was a small ir- 
regular opening in the trunk of the tree, where the 
odorous brown bark lay soft and dry. From out 
this recess Margaret fished a favorite book, and was 
soon lost to all idle speculation. 


60 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


VII. 

DESTINY. 

“ After the May time and after the June time, 

Rare with blossoms and perfume sweet, 

Cometh the round world’s royal noontime, 

The old midsummer of blazing heat.” 

The heat of a July day, with a tinge of gray haze 
in the atmosphere, lay warm and slumbrous over 
Steyne House, when at midday a horseman came 
riding leisurely up the footpath or short cut, the 
steep declivities of which the blooded horse in his 
supple young strength seemed to disdain. He came 
on at a long swinging walk, his satin coat glistening 
in the sun with every straining of the flexible muscles, 
with every lifting of the dainty feet. 

The rider dismounted at the gate, and, passing his 
hand over the head of his horse with a light caressing 
movement, dropped the rein over the post and came 
up the wide path. In age he might have been any- 
where near thirty-five. The slight, well-built figure 
was above the medium height, the head was set well 
back on a pair of firm, square shoulders, and there 
was a certain proud carriage of the head when he 
walked, a slight lifting of the chin, which gave him 
the air of one born to command. The features w T ere 
clear-cut and strong, if not regular, and the black 
hair and eyes went well with the sun-browned skin. 
A suit of gray tweed, with a wide-brimmed soft hat 
of the same color, and a pair of natty riding-boots 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


61 


which covered his symmetrical feet, constituted his 
easy yet becoming costume. 

His glance wandered over the old house, for with 
its warm, vagrant tones, its odd-shaped dormer 
windows, its brown roof dented with high-pointed 
gables, and flecked over with patches of gray -green 
moss, it made a lovely picture of quiet restfulness 
in the sunlight, for there was nothing to break 
the drowsy, droning stillness of noonday but the low 
murmurings of some snow-white pigeons on the 
eaves, where they cooed and plumed their feathers 
with deft pluckings of their pink bills. 

The man’s dark eyes lighted in poetic sympathy 
with the quiet scene, and he lingered in his walk 
to look at it ; then he sighed, and with that sigh 
some of the brightness went out of the spirited 
face, and quickening his pace he mounted the steps, 
crossed the wide veranda, and used the heavy brass 
knocker. 

The mistress was at home, and he was shown into 
the library, where Margaret sat writing. She rose 
from the secretary as he crossed the threshold, and 
came forward to meet him. 

“ I am Miss Steyne,” she said simply. 

A faint trace of surprise crossed the face of the 
man as his eyes rested on this young and lovely 
woman. Why he had expected to meet in the mis- 
tress of Steyne House an elderly person he did not 
know, but he knew now that all unconsciously he 
had. 

‘ ‘ My name is Thorne, ” h e said courteously. ‘ ‘ I am 
interested in a company formed by Northern cap- 
italists who are buying extensive coal-fields beyond 


62 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


this, which we wish to open up as soon as we can 
secure railroad facilities. We are at the present 
locating a branch to connect with the main line at 
Walsingham below here. We have made the survey, 
and the line, I am told, runs through your land. I 
have called about the right of way.” 

He had accepted the seat offered him, with the 
easy courtesy of one accustomed to the drawing- 
room. 

44 Is it not quite a new enterprise ? ” Margaret in- 
quired. 44 I had not heard it spoken of.” 

“ Yes, we are just making a beginning, though 
we have had the matter under consideration for some 
time.” 

“I am truly glad,” said Margaret, 44 that the 
mineral resources of the state are being discovered 
and developed. It will give her people employment. 
All her former industries having been prostrated if 
not destroyed, her people have been left sadly help- 
less and hopeless.” 

“ Yes, that is true ; and the mining of coal would 
furnish employment for large numbers of men who 
must otherwise remain idle for aught I can see.” 

44 Can you explain to me on what part of my land 
the survey is located ? ” Margaret asked ; and she 
listened while he told her. 

“And now do you think you understand just 
where it is ? ” he asked. 

“ I am afraid I do not ; I might be less obtuse,” 
she said with a faint smile,” if I had ever seen that 
part of my property. I have been here but a short 
time.” 

4 4 If that is the case, you would better see 


A ROMANCE OF TllE NEW VIRGINIA . 


63 


the land before deciding,” said Mr Thorne ; “ and if 
you will set a time, I will go with you and point out 
the exact route we wish to take. I am staying at 
Walsingham for the present.” 

Miss Price entered the room, and Margaret in- 
troduced Mr. Thorne to her and explained the mat- 
ter. They decided to look at the line of survey that 
evening, after the heat had abated somewhat. 

Mr. Thorne rose ; he looked tall in his riding 
boots. 

“ If you will name an hour convenient to you I 
will call for you at that time,” he said bowing 
slightly to both ladies. There was a certain forceful 
grace in his movements, however trivial they might 
be. 

They would go after six o’clock ; it would be cool 
by then, Margaret said ; and promising to return at 
that hour he said, “ Good-bye.” 

“No,” Margaret said, and smilingly shook her 
head in answer to old Hagar, who had appeared in 
the doorway, her face a silent but eloquent interroga- 
tion point. 

“ No company to dinner to-day, Hagar.” 

Hagar looked the disappointment she felt. She 
differed from most servants in that she liked to have 
company come to the house, that she might serve 
them at table. It was doubtless because of the 
isolated life her master had led that the mild ex- 
citement of a strange face at the table came to be 
so eagerly desired and watched for. 

In the past, Hagar and Gabriel had found their 
excitement, as did most of the colored people of that 
region, in the protracted religious revivals held 


64 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


semi-yearly, to which the slaves of that section all 
iooked forward with high anticipations of enjoyment 
if not benefit. But the war had come, sweeping 
away long-established customs, and uprooting the 
social life of the country as completely as it had done 
the political and financial. The “ big revivals” 
were no more, and nothing had come to their place. 
It could never again be as it had once been. 

The old slaves who for many years had met and 
led the worship at those meetings, fraternizing with 
each other in joy and in sorrow, were scattered far 
and wide, many of them huddled together in hovels 
and sheds in the back alleys of the great North- 
ern cities, suffering from cold and hunger, with 
difficulty securing food and warmth enough to 
sustain life. Many of them did not have sufficient, 
and the mortality among the freed people in Wash- 
ington alone, in the first few months that followed 
emancipation, was as startling as it was pathetic. 
They lacked not excitement. There is a monotony 
that is exciting, the monotony of wanting to eat 
regularly ; and the excitement is in the fear of not 
obtaining food. 

Truly the blessings of freedom came with slow, 
halting footsteps to many of those helpless, suffer- 
ing ones, who in the excitement and stress of the 
times wandered away from their old homes and 
friends, in ignorance that in the great world their 
utter poverty and helplessness would be against 
them. Many of them looked back to their old 
plantation life, with its settled hours of labor and 
its freedom from care and responsibility, with 
longing and homesickness that were pitiful. Not 


A HOMAN CE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


65 


a few found their way back to where their homes 
had once been, and if these had been destroyed and 
could no longer afford them shelter, they squatted 
down as near thereto as they could. When Gabriel 
had exploited freedom and returned from his wan- 
derings, he said : 

“Yes, we’s free, Hagah ; and hit’s nice to be 
free. Ye can go jis wliar ye wants ter. But,” he 
added impressively, “ye wants ter stay right heali, 
right whar ye is. De free niggah up Norf done got 
ter shif fer hissef, jes’ lak white folks ; now min’ 
dat ! ” 

And these two old people had accepted the new 
order of things as something not affecting their 
everyday lives, and remained quietly content with 
the isolated existence so desired by their master, 
making the most of the small diversions which 
came in their way ; and now this active, broader 
life which had come to them with the advent of a 
new mistress, filled the measure of their content. 
After more than twenty-five years, Hagar had 
again the companionship of her own sex. 

“ But I do ’clar, Gabe,” she was heard to say to 
her partner in a burst of confidence, “I do ? clar I 
done fergit how queer women folks is.” 

“Gre’t Moses ! I neber don’ fergit it,” declared 
old Gabe, chuckling almost to strangulation in his 
enjoyment of Hagar’s honest confession and his own 
cleverness of retort. 

5 


66 


A HOMAN CE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


VIII. 

THE WALK TO THE BLUFFS. 

The sun was throwing long slant shadows, when 
the figure of Mr. Thorne swung into sight on the 
hill-path. Margaret and Miss Price, with Gabriel 
at their backs, went down the lilac-bordered walk, 
and met him at the gate where he had dismounted 
and stood waiting for them. 

They went round the outside of the stone wall, and 
crossed the strip of yellow dusty road on to the wide 
stretch of soft green grass which, Gabe said, “ wuz 
t’ be a medder, ef he could on’y keep dem peste’n 
geese ofFn it.” 

A venerable gray goose, with her long neck 
threateningly outstretched towards the advancing 
party, was keeping valiant guard over her flock of 
downy goslings, and the sight stirred Gabe’s antag- 
onism. 

“Yes, dar ye be, ? n dar ye’l stay tel jedgment 
day, I ’spect,” he muttered, with a withering look at 
the belligerent trespasser. 

4 ‘ I believe Gabe makes a point of being vexed 
when he sees a goose,” said Margaret, “and I am 
sure would exterminate them all, but that they are 
the one delight of Hagar’s heart.” 

“ They seem indigenous to the soil of Virginia,” 
said Thorne; “I see numerous flocks in my rides, 
and I like to see them ; they bring to mind some 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


67 


pleasant experiences in my early life. When I was 
a boy there was a flock of them on our lake, and 
much of my skill in managing a boat was acquired 
in trying to dash surprisedly into that flock of 
geese. How they splashed and dived, and what a 
noise they made ! But I could never run them 
down ; they always managed to outgeneral me. 
And they seemed to enjoy the sport of it as much 
as I.” 

“An old goose is a valiant antagonist in almost 
any kind of a battle,” said Miss Price. 

“ There’s a man in our survey gang who would 
endorse your sentiments most heartily,” said Thorne ; 
“he is afraid of them.” 

“Afraid of them !” exclaimed Margaret wonder- 
ingly. 

“ Yes, he is one of the chain-men whose duty 
among other things is to set the pegs. He is a 
German Jew, a small, quick-moving man, extremely 
nervous and impulsive. A few days ago, as they 
were working near a farmyard, an old goose with 
her young family strolled up to inspect their move- 
ments. The German was setting a stake and did 
not see her until she had walked up and given him 
a vicious bite on the leg. He sprang into the air 
with a yell that was startling, and quick as a 
flash he threw the peg he held in his hand at the 
goose, but missed his aim, and hit a young one 
which fell limply to the ground. Then he was sorry, 
and he exclaimed penitently, “ Oh, you foolish 
goose ! see vat you tun ; I kilt your poy fer dat.” 

“Well, that’s just like a goose, and just like a 
Dutchman,” said Miss Price sententiously. 


68 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


The lower end of the plantation was nearly a 
mile from the house. The long sweep of ground, 
sloping smoothly down, ended in a line of sudden 
dips and bluffs, extending almost the entire length 
of the plantation. Beyond this lay a narrow worm- 
like valley, and it was in this valley and close to the 
line of bluffs that the survey had been made. The 
boundary of Miss Steyne’s land, as pointed out by 
old Gabriel, extended about two hundred yards 
beyond the bluff, and included the whole of the 
narrow valley. This portion, cut off from the main 
body by the railroad, would be so much waste land 
toiler, and Mr. Thorne offered compensation accord- 
ing to the damage sustained. 

“We must go up the valley,” he explained; 
“ should we move the line over to the other side, it 
would still be on your land ; while it would be in a 
little better shape for you, the roadbed would be 
more expensive to the company. They will accept 
my valuation, and I have offered you what I should 
consider a just compensation were I the owner of 
the land. I will draw our contract with provisions 
protecting you in every way possible.” 

“I believe you will,” said Margaret, with a 
straightforward look from the soft dark eyes into 
the eyes of the man before her. 

There was a sigh on the man’s lips, and in his 
heart a strange hesitancy to speak again ; but con- 
quering the feeling, he thanked her for her kind 
judgment, wondering how a man could be any- 
thing but straight with those eyes looking into his. 

They returned along the foot of the bluffs by a 
narrow path, whether worn by human or animal 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


69 


feet was hard to tell. It was deliciously cool down 
there, while on the upland the sun still shone with 
slanting yet penetrating rays, to avoid which they 
skirted the range, instead of returning as they had 
come. 

Gabriel had seen “ sumpin’ black ”on the side of a 
bluff, and had gone ahead to examine. The soft 
shale had been hollowed out three or four feet in 
width and five or six in height. A fire had been 
built in this excavation, which accounted for the 
blackness, and evidences were not wanting to show 
that cooking had been done there by someone, and 
recently at that. Chicken feathers scattered about 
and dead embers tell a straight tale to a darkey. 
Old Gabe, elevating his nose, sniffed the air signif- 
icantly. 

“ See heah,” he exclaimed to Miss Price, who had 
come up with him. “See heah ! ” waving his arms 
above the chicken feathers strewn thickly over the 
ground. “See dis heah : and see dat hole dar in de 
bluff. Dat war made to kin’le a fiah in. Some 
dem no ’count niggahs down dar ; ” and he jerked 
his thumb excitedly over his shoulder in the direc- 
tion of the station. “Dey’s bin heah ; yes, dey’s 
bin robbin’ hones’ folks’ hen-kops, and cum heah to 
cook de pullets wliar n’ body kin see ’em. If I 
don’ cotch ’em on dis lan’ wunst, dar wont be a 
s matter'11 ob dem lef,” he declared stoutly. And 
the mild, easy-tempered old man waxed so indig- 
nant over the supposed trespass, that for a time he 
really believed that he would do as he said, and in 
imagination saw hosts of black woolly heads fleeing 
wildly from the fury of his wrath. 


70 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ Spare your denunciations, old fellow,” said Mr. 
Thorne ; “ you are putting the blame on the wrong 
shoulders. It was my men who did it. Their tents 
were pitched just around the bluff there for a short 
time, and the wind being shifty, the cook scooped 
out that hole to make a fire in. I did not forbid it, 
because I did not think he was doing any harm, — 
and the chickens were paid for.” 

‘‘Well now! Is dat so?” muttered old Gabe 
with a crestfallen air, while he meekly pulled his 
foretop in token of respect. 

“ But, Massa Thorne, hit looks like a shuah niggah 
trick, and I knows a niggah pu’ty well,” he persisted. 

“I rather think you do,” said Mr. Thorne laugh- 
ing. “Here is a dollar for you. Hunt up some 
chickens and have a bake on your own account. 
You would like it, wouldn’t you ? ” 

“ ’Deed I would, sail,” said Gabe so promptly and 
earnestly as to cause a general laugh, while he poked 
about the hole in the bank with renewed interest. 
Over the roof of the cave or excavation was a thin 
layer of rock, which the heat had caused to split 
off from the body. This the old darky took hold of, 
and it pulled down easily. 

“ Why, dis am mos’ lik a boa’d, so smoove an’ 
light ; I’s gwine to tek it home to Hagah fer a 
kibber on a milk-crock.” 

“What kind of stone is that? Let me see it,” 
said Miss Price, adjusting her glasses. 

Taking it in her hands she examined it closely, 
presently calling to Margaret and Mr. Thorne, who 
were a little way ahead, to come back and look at 
it. “ For,” she said, “ it looks like a slate they used 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA, 71 

in Massachusetts for building purposes when I lived 
there. I don’t know that it is, but it looks like it. 
It is certainly slate, but whether of any account I 
do not know.” 

They looked at the piece she held in her hand, at 
the piece from which it had split off, and at the 
ledges surrounding it. 

“ There is plenty of it, at least, for it crops out 
along the bluff above and below,” said Thorne. “ I 
had not handled it before, supposing it to be the 
usual brittle shale we are crossing often. We can 
tell little about it now by this piece, for it has been 
heated so thoroughly it may be quite different from 
what it was in its original state. Yet I should like 
to know ; it may be of value to you some time with 
a railroad so near ; but we will see.” 

As they turned to leave the low land, the last rays 
of the setting sun crested with a golden crown the 
tops of the tall oaks and beeches, while up their 
rugged trunks the soft gray shadows stole, and 
nestled down in the deep furrows of the bark. The 
sun had slipped out of sight in a sea of red, the red 
had grown paler, then faded to palest pink, till at 
last there was not even the afterglow. A thin slip 
of white moon hung by its tip above the rim of 
mountain when Mr. Thorne said good-bye at the 
gate, mounted his horse, and took the longer road 
toward Walsingham. 

He was fond of the summer twilight and would 
lengthen rather than shorten his ride. He held the 
rein slack on the neck of his young horse, which, 
thoroughly trained to his master’s moods, went slow- 
ly and daintily down the hill. But as the twilight 


72 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


thickened the horse began to look about him, turn- 
ing his head from side to side and rattling the hit 
uneasily, till the restlessness of the sensitive, nerv- 
ous body communicated itself to his rider. Then 
Thorne drew up the rein. 

“ What is it, King? What’s wrong with you, 
my boy ? ” he said, laying his hand caressingly on 
the delicately veined neck. 

At the sound of his master’s voice and the touch 
of his hand the horse was comforted, though not 
wholly quieted. Then Thorne saw what in his ab- 
straction he had not noticed before. It was one of 
those peculiar nights which sometimes follow a day 
that has been all sunshine and gladness, when all 
nature has been joyous and bright. But a great 
change comes. The night falls softly and restfully, 
but the calmness that accompanies it is unnatural. 
There is something eerie in the twilight which creeps 
over the arch that was so beautiful a short time be- 
fore. And when the full darkness of night comes 
at last, it is filled with an awesome, forbidding gloom. 
The stars at first may shine with an unwonted bril- 
liancy, but they soon lose their light. The small 
ones disappear altogether, and the larger ones show 
only here and there, through a gloomy haze. And 
this darkness, there is something wonderful about 
it. It is full of strange shadows. The trembling 
mists make moving shapes of inanimate things. In 
strange places and out of nothing start flitting 
shades, which fade away again as swiftly as they 
take form. The air seems alive with voices murmur- 
ing, whispering to us in a language we cannot un- 
derstand. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


73 


There is something unexplainable in the feeling 
that comes over one at such a time. It is a strange 
spell, an unnatural loneliness. 

The horseman waited long on the lonely hill. The 
weird night had a fascination for him. It fitted his 
mood. Life in the valley had grown still when he 
turned his horse’s head homeward. The barking of 
a dog came up through the darkness. A wind out 
of the west beat against him as he rode down the 
hill. The village was quiet and the lights were out. 
The white mist wrapped as in a wet sheet the clump 
of willows by the bridge, and the beat of his horse’s 
hoofs on the wooden planks sounded as the tramp 
of a troop through the unnatural, awesome darkness. 

The next morning but one Mr. Thorne again dis- 
mounted at Miss Steyne’s gate. Miss Price was 
seated on the porch ; at her invitation he dropped 
into a chair and sat chatting till the young mistress 
made her appearance. She had been in the garden, 
and came up the front steps, meeting her visitor 
with the easy grace of manner peculiar to her, say- 
ing just the right words of welcome. She wore a 
cool, pale lawn of a yellowish tint, which brought 
out and intensified the beauty of the nut-brown hair 
and the soft brown eyes so pure and true. So alto- 
gether lovely was she that, unimpressible as Thomp- 
son Thorne was where women were concerned, he 
drew in his breath sharply ; but the sound was 
smothered behind the heavy moustache, as he rose 
and took the fair hand held out to him in welcome. 

There are women and women, he thought sadly, 
as he looked at her. A small mocking voice within 


74 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


seemed whispering to his consciousness, “ What is 
that to you, Tom Thorne ? ” 

There was a tightening of the muscles about the 
mouth, an ominous flash of the dark eye, conquered 
as quickly as it came, and his hand brought from 
the inner breast pocket of his coat a paper, and he 
walked over to where Margaret stood. 

“ I have with me the right-of-way deed for your 
signature, Miss Steyne, and I believe you will find 
it satisfactory. 

“ I feel sure that you have made it as it should 
be,” she replied. 

“ Yes, it is as it should be ; but when you have 
read it over, if it is not quite clear to you, please 
say so, and I will explain all difficulties ; ” which he 
did, standing by her side as she read. 

The conditions proved satisfactory to Margaret, 
and also to Miss Price, upon whose good judgment 
and strong, practical sense Margaret greatly relied 
in all matters, whether domestic or financial. 

“ If you do not wish to use the money,” said 
Thorne, “ you would better send the cheque I give 
you to your lawyer at Richmond, to be deposited to 
your credit.” 

“Yes, I suppose that is the right thing to do,” 
she replied. 

They had entered the library and stood by the old 
secretary, now thoroughly womanly in its dainty 
appointments, and sweet with the delicate odor of 
evanescent perfume which permeated its belongings. 

“I have been thinking further,” he said, “ of that 
deposit along the bluffs down there. I have a friend 
who is a practical geologist. He is to be in Rich- 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


75 


monel soon, if he is not already there ; and I am go- 
ing to write him to come up to visit me here, as I 
want greatly to see him and cannot possibly leave 
at this time. Should he come, we will make an 
examination of those bluffs.” 

“ I thank you for your kind interest,” said Mar- 
garet, “but hope that you may enjoy a visit from 
your friend, with or without discoveries. Gabriel 
is preparing to go right on with his festivities. Who 
would you suppose he has invited to be his guests ? ” 
she asked smiling. 

“I am sure I could not guess, but on a chance 
would say it was not any of the station negroes,” 
he returned. 

“ And you would be right. His invitations ex- 
tend only to Miss Price and myself, and I believe 
your name is on his list.” 

“It is an invitation I shall have to refuse, I am 
afraid, as I am obliged to go to the other end of the 
line. Will you say to the old fellow that I am sorry 
I cannot accept his hospitality ? ” and with a friendly 
good-bye he went down the walk and mounted his 
horse, which at a touch on the rein struck into a 
long, swinging gallop. 

The straight, supple figure looked well in the 
saddle. 

“He must have been in the army,” said Margaret. 
“ No other men ride as do cavalrymen.” 

Miss Price’s knitting lay idle in her lap. She, too, 
was looking at the fast-disappearing horseman. She 
watched him out of sight. Then, with a decisive 
little nod of her head in the direction he had gone, 
she said in her concise way, “ I like him.” 


76 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Margaret looked at her friend, wondering not a 
little at the strength of her words. For Miss Price 
possessed acute perceptive faculties, and her insight 
into the character of people, and her judgment of 
them, Margaret had found to be startlingly keen 
and just. 

“ Why do you like Mr. Thorne, Rebecca?” she 
asked presently. 

“ Why do I like him ? Well, now, I don’t know 
that I can take him to pieces and analyze him as 
you would a plant,” she said, looking brightly at 
her young friend over her glasses. “ But, to begin 
with, he has good manners, is a handsome man, 
and knows how to ride a horse.” 

“ Rebecca, I will left you off. You have already 
exceeded my wildest expectations,” laughed Mar- 
garet. 

“ There is something in the man’s personality that 
attracts me to him ; something that tells me he has 
missed the best thing in life. He is not a happy 
man ; yet he will never be a bad man, for his in- 
stincts are good. He has a strong, sympathetic 
nature, which he is repressing. He seems to be 
simply enduring, and his powers of endurance are 
wonderful,” said Rebecca thoughtfully. “ Yet a 
time of reckoning must come to such natures. They 
cannot always live so; they cannot, and they do not.” 

Margaret was not a little startled by her friend’s 
earnest words and grave manner. 

“ And what then ? ” she asked. 

“ Then, when the human heart can bear no more, 
deliverance comes. And may it come soon to him,” 
she added fervently. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


77 


“ Do you mean/’ asked Margaret with earnest 
eyes, “that the hardship, whatever it may be, is 
removed, taken out of our lives ; that we are re- 
leased from it ? ” 

“ I believe that rest, even compensation, comes to 
us in some form. Either the sorrow is removed 
or, through a merciful God, the power to suffer is 
taken from us.” 

Margaret, for the moment, did not speak ; a 
sweet thoughtfulness came into the brown eyes. 
At length with a faint sigh on her lips she looked 
at her companion and said : 

4 ‘ I thank you, Rebecca, more than I can express, 
for those words. I shall never forget them, and 
should great trouble or suffering ever come to me, 
th:y will help me to bear it more patiently and 
hopefully.” 

“God grant trouble of that kind may never come 
to you ! ” prayed Rebecca Price silently in the 
depths of her heart, for this girl was very dear to 
her. With her warm sympathy, her genial, loving 
ways and responsive nature, she had brought such 
brightness and sweetness into the lonely, repressed 
life of Miss Price as she had not dreamed could 
come to her in this world. 


78 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


IX. 

THE MOONLIGHT MEETING. 

Several clays of rainy weather following each 
other in succession caused a postponement of old 
Gabriel’s proposed chicken bake until a week had 
passed ? and now through the dusk there showed a 
great red flare on the side of the bluff hedging in 
the narrow valley. To the fanciful mind it might 
be the sacrificial altar of some strange heathen God. 
The figures which passed before and about, now 
upright, now stooping and turning, now plucking 
themselves back from the flames, with changing 
postures and swayings of the bodj r , might fitly be 
the victims for the sacrifice. It was but the prosaic 
Gabriel and Hagar engaged in preparing the long- 
deferred feast. 

They had been there for some time, and the 
supper was almost ready when the guests were 
seen coming along the path, Miss Steyne’s white 
dress showing plainly in the moonlight some 
distance away. Her companion in more sober 
raiment was Miss Price, who carried on her arm a 
shawl, remembering that Margaret might later on 
feel the dew in her thin dress. 

Following the two ladies, came a dark spot, an 
uncanny, eerie object, which for a time would keep 
steadily along, and then just as suddenly drop 
behind, and in gruesome silence go through a 
perfect whirlwind of gyrations. It was the little 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


79 


black maid whom Miss Steyme had added to her 
establishment within the past week. She was a 
demure-appearing child enough, almost stolid-look- 
ing at times ; and, what was peculiar in one of that 
race, she seldom smiled. Miss Steyne thought 
there were undeveloped possibilities in the girl ; 
that she was not really stupid, only new and 
strange, a condition which would wear off. 

“No,” hazarded Miss Price, when appealed to 
for an opinion, “I do not think her stupid; on 
the contrary ; but,” with a grim smile, “I reckon 
you’ve got about what you wanted ; we will wait 
and see.” 

And they were coming to know that, though in 
a way obedient and respectful to her superiors, the 
little maid was developing into as likely an imp of 
mischief as could well be imagined, one of the kind 
who, when she had done a mischief, left you tanta- 
lizingly in doubt as to whether or not she knew 
that it was a mischief. Miss Price chanced to turn 
and look back. 

“Good gracious, Margaret,” she exclaimed, 
“ see there, if that child isn’t somersaulting along 
that narrow path.” 

True enough ; she was coming along like a wagon 
wheel, over and over, with perfect indifference to 
the danger to life and limb. She may have seen 
that she was observed, for she instantly uprighted 
herself and walked along with the most fitting pro- 
priety, the small tight braids of wool, which stood 
out vertically around her head, nodding sociably at 
each other. The two ladies went on without say- 
ing anything to the reckless little acrobat. 


80 


A ROMANCE OF TIIE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ The possibilities are developing at a pretty fair 
rate, it would seem,” observed Miss Price. “She 
would just as soon walk on her head now as on her 
feet. She will break her neck some day. What 
can we do with her ? ” 

“ I do not know,” said Margaret laughing. “ If 
she were going to break her neck, I probably 
shouldn’t know of it in time to prevent her.” 

“ Have we kept you waiting, Gabriel ? ” his mis- 
tress inquired. 

Gabriel hastened to protest that he was just now 
ready. He had made seats for the ladies by piling 
up rocks, on top of which he placed large pieces of 
the shaly black rock, and on these a folded blanket. 
Hagar had brought sandwiches and a bottle of 
her currant wine down from the house, to crown 
the feast. 

“Why, this is delightful !” exclaimed Margaret, 
“ I had not thought it could be so nice down here.” 

Her words of praise were very sweet to the old 
man, who in his heart had enthroned his young 
mistress as the one perfect being he had ever known, 
and to merit her approval was the ambition of his 
life. 

Hagar, taking hold of the long iron handle, drew 
from the coals the peculiar-looking vessel in which 
she had cooked the chicken. It was something like 
a common frying pan, but much deeper, being fitted 
with an iron cover or lid which extended over the 
edge of the vessel. 

“What do you call that, Hagar ? ” inquired her 
mistress, regarding curiously the odd-looking object. 

“ Dat’s de Pilgrim-pot, missus,” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


81 


“ But why do you call it that ? 55 

“Because Massa Henry say de Pilgrim Faders 
don’ use it to cook in, an I doan’ kno’ any oder 
name fer it.” 

It was what Miss Price called an old-fashioned 
Dutch oven, such as she remembered to have seen in 
her New England home. They put them down on 
the wide stone hearth of the wood fireplace, and 
raking the hot embers high around them, brazed, 
baked, or stewed, as they desired. 

“And when you put in your chicken,” she said, 
“with plenty of butter and sprigs of parsley, there 
isn't anything to compare with that kind of cooking 
that I know of. It stands to reason that new things 
can’t always be best.” 

Old Gabriel’s supper was indisputable proof of the 
correctness of Miss Price’s judgment, for it was as 
dainty a dish as the four-and- twenty blackbirds set 
before the king. 

The little black maid came at last and seated her- 
self quietly on the outermost fragment of a ledge 
of rock half way up the bluff, where, outlined 
against the sky, she looked like some sable bird of 
prey ready for instant onslaught or flight, as fancy 
led. Suddenly slipping from her perch she hopped 
down the steep bluff with the agility of a chamois- 
hunter, and stood looking off down the miniature 
valley with apparently no object or interest. Then 
she lifted her hand, a curious way she had of attract- 
ing the attention of her mistress. 

“ What is it, Axein ? ” Margaret asked, chancing 
to see the signal. 

“ Dar’s enemies in de camp,” she said. 


82 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


44 Enemies ! What do you mean, child ? Are 
you dreaming ?” her mistress exclaimed. 

44 Whar’s de enemies ? Jes’ show em t’ me, jes’ 
show ’em ! ” demanded old Gabe, getting briskly to 
his feet and shading his eyes with his two hands, 
as he bent his body rigidly forward and peered 
cautiously beyond the circle of light in all directions ; 
but not a shadow rewarded his careful survey, and 
with a look of relief his hands dropped to his sides. 

44 Dar haint no pusson ’roun’. Hit’s jes’ youn’s 
tricks,” he declared, turning threateningly on the 
little harbinger of evil. 

44 You ’s too ole anblin’, ye can’t see noffin’,” she 
retorted scornfully, with her nose in the air. 

44 Too ole to see, eh ! ” muttered the old man dis- 
dainfully as he returned to his duties. 

44 How old are you, Gabe?” It was Miss Price 
who asked the question. 

44 I’s push in’ fifty, missus,” he answered respect- 
fully, 44 but I can see a niggah es fur’z ennybody,” 
he added. 

44 ’Taint niggahs,” spoke out the small black 
oracle. 

44 No, ’taint nobody, dat’s what — ” began Gabe, 
when a friendly halloa from the top of the bluff 
effectually ended the dispute, and brought them all 
to their feet. 

44 Halloa, Gabriel ! Is that you down there ? 
May we come down ? ” 

44 My goodness! It’s Mr. Thorne!” exclaimed 
Miss Price, looking hurriedly around as though she 
seriously contemplated trying to hide. 

In truth she was most thoroughly chagrined at 


A liOMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


83 


being caught on such a lark by Mr. Thorne and no 
telling who else, and she reflected on her supreme 
folly in doing anything so strange. Margaret 
rather enjoyed the situation, all the more because 
Miss Pi’ice was so flustered. There is a certain pleas- 
ure in transcending the ordinary rules a little, 
without violating them, that gives piquancy and 
flavor to such events. 

Two figures were silhouetted against the sky, as 
Margaret saw when she stepped out of the circle of 
light. She had recognized Mr. Thorne by his voice 
alone, and called up a cordial invitation to him to 
join them. 

As Margaret’s clear, sweet voice floated up from 
below, the man who stood by Thompson Thorne’s 
side grasped his shoulder with a convulsive clutch. 

“ Heavens, Tom ! ” he exclaimed, “ whose voice 
is that ? Who is down there ? ” 

And with a stride Paul Grey was on the edge of 
the bluff, looking down to where Margaret Steyne 
stood in the light of the fire, her bright face up- 
turned toward him, her soft white gown gath- 
ered full in one hand. It was a picture to stir an 
artist’s soul, and what was its power over the man 
who stood on the ledge above ? He did not speak, 
but silently stretched out his arms toward the 
woman as though he would gather her to his heart ; 
then they fell at his side. 

Thorne, silent from sheer surprise, stood looking 
at his friend. They were not strangers, then, these 
two, and how much more they were to each other, 
only they knew. 

A strange feeling pressed upon him, numbing his 


84 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


senses. A weight was across his eyes. The sound 
of his friend’s voice came faintly to his ear, yet lie 
knew with a distinctness that was pain, that he was 
saying in tones that were impatient with joy : 

“ Margaret Steyne ? Margaret? Why did you 
not tell me, Thorne, that she was here ?— that it was 
to her you were bringing me ? 55 

Thorne took his cigar from between his lips and 
looked at his friend, and his words came slowly, as 
with an effort : 

“ I did not know that I had not mentioned her 
name to you. I had not thought — how should I 
know— know that — But we must go down, 5 ’ he 
said, with sudden decision. 

He had pulled himself together with a wrench 
that hurt, and flinging his cigar impatiently from 
him, said “ Come !” and, followed by Grey, he let 
himself down over the edge of the bluff, sending a 
light artillery of the loose, shaly stones clattering 
into the valley below. 

Margaret stood in the circle of the fitful light 
made by the fire, waiting for them. Thorne was 
first and shook hands with her, enjoying covetously 
the short moment that was his ; the moment which 
he felt was stolen from that other happiness which 
was awaiting her within the sound of her voice, the 
touch of her hand. Then, with cordial voice and 
manner, he said : 

“ I have brought you, all -unknowing, an old 
friend, Miss Steyne,” stepping aside as he spoke ; and 
Margaret Steyne and Paul Grey were face to face. 

Surprise for a moment kept her silent. Then, 
with a pleased friendliness, she put out her hand, 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


85 


and it was her own calm, sweet voice, without a 
tremor in it, which said : 

“ I am glad to see you, Professor Grey.” 

“Say, I am glad to see you, Paul ; ” and the 
grave face of Paul Grey was pale with emotion 
and resolve. He leaned toward her, his eyes searched 
hungrily the sweet face of Margaret Steyne, as he 
awaited breathlessly her reply. 

Another pair of dark, passionate eyes, under 
cover of the darkness, watching keenly the changing 
face of the woman, saw that she shrank from 
meeting Paul Grey in this attitude, though the hesi- 
tation was slight and so quickly controlled that it 
might have been thought merely natural embar- 
rassment by one less observant than Thorne. That 
Paul Grey was Miss Steyne’s friend, Thorne was 
glad, on second thought, for it bridged all social 
difficulties and brought him a possibility of friend- 
ship with her. He was no longer a stranger and 
unknown. 

“ I am glad to see you, my friend,” she said, in the 
same cordial tones she had used before ; and with- 
drawing the hand which Paul Grey released with 
a lingering touch, she drew him forward to where 
Miss Price stood. 

“This is one of my old friends from the North, 
Rebecca, Professor Grey.” To him she said, “ Miss 
Price is the best friend I ever had, the very best a 
lonely, homeless girl could have.” 

And then Miss Price, with the laudable intention 
of smoothing out the ruffled plumage of her dignity, 
went on to explain how they had thought it better 
they should accept Gabriel’s invitation and come 


86 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


down here than that he should bring strange colored 
people on to the place. 

“ So Rebecca had the kindness to consent, ” said 
Margaret ; “ she is a martyr, and yet I believe she 
had serious thought of running away when you 
discovered us ; ” at which they all laughed. 

“But Gabriel there is waiting to give you some 
supper,” said Margaret, suddenly remembering her 
hospitality. 

The gentlemen declined with many thanks to the 
old colored people, which Thorne went over and de- 
livered in person. They had arrived on the late 
train, he said, taken their supper, and come out to 
smoke and walk in the moonlight, most fortunately 
in this direction. 

But they drank the health of the ladies in some 
of Hagar’s wine. Then Gabriel, under Thorne's 
directions, spread the blankets on the ground a little 
way along the bluff, away from the heat of the fire, 
and the four friends grouped themselves comfortably 
to enjoy the moonlight. 

“ Margaret, will you not have your shawl ? ” Miss 
Price was prone to be apprehensive of damp in ail 
kinds of weather. 

“Allow me ; ” and Paul Grey, taking the light 
wrap from Miss Price, would have placed it about 
Miss Steyne’s shoulders. 

“No, do not, ” she protested, putting up her hand ; 
and with a dexterous little twist of the wrist she 
had taken the shawl out of his hands and laid it 
on the ground at her side farthest from him. 

“There is no dew to-night, Rebecca ; it is simply 
perfect ; do not worry about me.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ How do you think you would like camping out, 
Miss Price ? ” questioned Thorne. 

“ I don’t know, I have never tried it in any shape ; 
I might learn to like it in time.” 

“You never would,” asserted Margaret; “you 
are much too orthodox ; you would be altogether 
miserable. ” 

“ While you ? ” said Thorne interrogatively. 

“ While I should like it,” she said. 

“Yes, I believe you would.” 

“I do not deny my bohemian tendencies,” she 
protested. “ Under favorable conditions I am most 
cei’tain to indulge them, and when I do I always feel 
that I am getting just so much extra enjoyment 
out of life.” 

“Yes,” he said. It was half an assent and half 
an interrogation, and Margaret amiably responded 
to the interrogation. 

“ Much as we feel when we have received a letter 
and read it, and then unexpectedly discover some 
writing down the sides or across the top of the 
sheet.” 

“ Be logical, if you can, and explain, “ said Thorne ; 
“ I am interested.” 

“ Is that generous ? ” she asked, and laughed with 
him. “You see,” she went on, “ they are not the 
things they must say to us — the necessary things. 
Those are put in the body of the letter. The addi- 
tions are the things they want to say to us, the bloom 
on the clover, you know.” 

“ Do you think that is distinctively a woman’s 
feeling about those afterthoughts or marginal 
notes ? ” Thorne persisted. 


88 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ Your question can be answered more easily and 
certainly from a man’s point of view,” she returned. 

“ How is it, Professor ? ” asked Thorne, adroitly 
shifting the responsibility of a reply from his own 
shoulders to those of his friend. 

Professor Grey turned from his conversation with 
Miss Price. 

“ What is it ? I did not hear,” he said, bringing 
to the subject a grave attention wholly disproportion- 
ate to the importance of the point under discussion. 

Margaret remained silent, resolved that Mr. 
Thorne should make his own explanations ; and 
there was a sound of amusement in his voice as he 
said : 

“Do you like to receive letters, Professor, with 
postscripts, addenda, and that sort of thing at the 
bottom and up and down the sides of the sheet, a 
sort of aftermath, you know ? ” 

“No,” the Professor answered gravely, “ I do not 
think I should like them ; they would be trouble- 
some to read. I do not often get a letter of that 
kind ; in fact, I hardly ever get such a one ; if I 
remember rightly I never did,” he asserted posi- 
tively. 

“Are you satisfied, Miss Steyne,” asked Thorne. 

“ I ? I disclaim the question or any responsibility 
for it,” she replied, smiling ; yet it was with a faint 
reproof in her voice that she said in a lower tone, 
“If you were in the army, Mr. Thorne, how did 
you fight ? ” 

“Fairly, I hope,” he answered more seriously, and 
turning to his friend, said : 

“We were trying, Grey, to determine a point 


A romance of the new Virginia. 89 

entirely outside of personal matters, and I was 
wanting to turn on a side-light.” 

“And the moonlight got into your brain,” sug- 
gested Professor Grey. 

“Yes, set it down to the moon and consider me 
weakly susceptible, if you will. But have you 
ever thought that the moon may have more effect, 
more positive influence on the human family than 
we are in the habit of supposing ? ” 

“ No,” replied the Professor ; “ I have not thought 
about it particularly ; I mean in a scientific way.” 

“Who is that little black girl I notice with you, 
Miss Steyne,” Thorne asked somewhat irrelevantly ; 
“ one of Gabe’s relatives ? ” 

“No, I beg of you, spare Gabe’s feelings,” she 
said, “for he is firmly convinced that Axem came 
to this earth direct from the evil one. How she 
comes to be here is, that I have taken her for my 
maid. I selected one untrained, as I preferred to 
train her myself.” 

“ Well, you’ve got a little savage, pure and sim- 
ple. Do you know we should not have found you 
but for her ? ” 

“ How so ? ” she asked. 

“She was back on the upland above the bluff, 
running like the wind, flinging up her arms in wild 
gestures to the moon, and dancing with strange 
postures like any savage in his voodoo worship. 
It’s the full moon that makes them wild. We saw 
her, and at first could not make out what it was, and 
followed until she disappeared over the bluff ; then 
we saw your light.” 

“ Coming back to the effect of the moon upon the 


90 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


human race,” said the Professor, “why should it 
differ with different people? Its effect on the 
physical life can only be the same with all peo- 
ple.” 

“ Yes, so far as we can measure, it may he,” said 
Margaret. “ But just how far the mental has to 
do with the physical we cannot know. 1 believe 
the African race are more susceptible to its influence 
because they do not reason or resist. It is a feeling 
with them, and they yield to it — a feeling which is 
born in them ; a bit of the wild, free life of savage 
Africa which is their inheritance and will only die 
with the race.” 

Thorne looked across the table and with a smile 
said : “ Ah, Miss Steyne, you are trampling rough- 
shod over some of Grey’s most cherished beliefs. 
You do not know that he says it is against reason 
and civilization to believe that the African, born 
here amid the environments of civilization and 
religion, should not shortly be emancipated from 
his inherited tendencies, and become even as his 
white brother. What do you think of his theory, 
Miss Price ? ” 

“I think that a closer acquaintance with the race 
would lead him to question its correctness. 

“ It seems to me,” said the Professor earnestly, 
“that under the changed conditions, with oppor- 
tunities for education, and with freedom to follow 
out the thoughts so inculcated, we might naturally 
expect such results. Why should we not ? ” 

“ Commend him to the study of your little maid, 
Miss Steyne,” said Thorne; “he has a subject at 
hand.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


91 


“lam sure he will find her an interesting sub- 
ject,” said Margaret ; “I find her so.” 

“About how many generations is she removed 
from Africa ? ” asked Professor Grey. 

“ I should say four at least, as her grandparents 
told me they were horn in Louisiana. She lived 
with them. But I will inquire further when I have 
opportunity,” she said. 

“ Possibly you have found for me an exceptional 
case for study,” ventured the Professor. “How- 
ever, I shall pursue it unflinchingly, according to 
opportunity.” 

“ And I will do what I can to help you, Professor 
Grey,” said Margaret cordially, “ for you have 
aroused the demon of investigation in me. We 
will take heart, too, from remembering that our 
little ‘ study 5 was born a slave and not free.” 

At the sweet friendliness of her words, the blood 
surged through Paul Grey’s veins joyfully, and the 
sound of it was in his voice when he spoke. 

“ Thank you ! ” He turned to his friend : “You 
have done me an inestimable favor, Thorne, in 
making Miss Steyne my ally. I shall study the 
characteristics of the American Negro with the 
closest interest from now on.” 

“Do so,” said Thorne ; “and you will find that 
black blood comes back with deadly persistency.” 

The ladies and gentlemen returned to the house, 
leaving Gabe and his wife to finish their feast in 
their own good time. It was a glorious night for a 
walk ; a sweet-scented, dewless night, with just 
the faintest caressing breath of air stirring on the 
upland, and the moonlight glorifying the earth. 


92 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


In such a night as this, 

When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, 
And they did make no noise — in such a night, 
Troilus, methinks, mounted the Trojan walls, 
And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents, 
Where Cressid lay that night.” 


They reached the house and stood talking at the 
gate. Thorne had looked at his watch by the light 
of the moon and was saying, “ We will not stop 
this evening, but if you will wait here, Grey, 1 will 
go in and strike a light for Miss Price ; ” and the 
two walked up the path together. 

“ How did you know that I would not like to go 
into the house alone and make a light ? ” Miss Price 
asked. 

‘ ‘ I never knew a woman who did not feel that 
way,” he said. “ Did you ? ” 

“Well, you understand women pretty well, not 
to be a married man, however you came by your 
knowledge,” declared Miss Price. 

“I am married,” he said briefly. 

That was all, and Miss Price, realizing the instant 
it had escaped her that her remark was little short 
of an impertinence, remained silent with not a 
thought beyond her own stupidity. 

He lighted the candles in the library in silence, 
and went through with her to the back entrance ; 
the fastenings were secure. 

“You are all right,” he announced, when they 
had returned to the library. But in answer to Miss 
Price’s thanks, he said: “You will pardon my 
speaking of it, but I do not think that leaving your 
house unguarded is quite a safe thing to do. There 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


93 


are a good many turbulent characters about the 
village, though petty thieving seems to have been 
their only offense so far.” 

“ You do right to speak of it ; I’ve been careless,” 
she said ; and she looked kindly at the straight, 
slim figure standing over by the table. 

He had taken a cigar from his pocket and stood 
jabbing the end of it with his pocket knife. He 
was thinking of the two they had left by the gate, 
in the moonlight. 

He shall have his chance, he was telling himself. 
At best it’s hard lines for him. Yes, it’s hell for a 
man to have such a woman as that before him and 
lose her. But she is right in this. Her happiness 
first ; it is her birthright ; it is every one’s birth- 
right. Heavens ! how many sacrifice it recklessly ! 

For a moment Thompson Thorne came face to 
face with himself, for one instant he looked down 
into his heart and shrank from what he saw in 
in its depths. One look, one moan, and the pendu- 
lum swung back ; the beat had not been lost, mind 
ruled again, but the strong, flexible hand sent the 
chair on which it rested roughly out of the way, as 
he stepped out on the veranda. Almost at once he 
turned and coming back said to Miss Price with his 
usual manner : 

“ We will made an examination of those bluffs 
to-morrow. Professor Grey is the geologist I spoke 
to you about. Will you kindly tell Miss Steyne of 
our intention, and ask her to send Gabriel down in 
the morning, if he can be spared, as we shall need 
him ? ” And going down the walk they joined the 
two at the gate, and said good-night. 


94 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Miss Price felt that she had judged aright when 
she said of Mr. Thorne that something had gone 
wrong in his life, that he was not getting the best 
out of it. Down on the road was a flare of light 
which went up to Throne’s face shielded in the hol- 
low of his hand, and she knew that he was lighting 
a fresh cigar. 

“ How a man will smoke — when — he feels like 
it ! ” she said, with the air of not having said what 
she started out to say. Nor had she, but Margaret 
had not observed, and the odor of the cigar trailed 
back to where the two women stood in the soft light 
of the full moon. 

“ Who is this friend of yours, Margaret ? 55 Miss 
Price was asking. “ He has had something to do 
with your past life . 55 

“Yes,” answered Margaret frankly and unhesi- 
tatingly ; “I want to tell you about it. There is 
not much to tell, but I shall feel better when you 
know. He was Professor of Sciences in a college in 
an adjoining town during the last four years I was 
at the Seminary ; I met him often, and 55 

“ And he took the opportunity to fall in love with 
you ? 55 said Miss Rebecca, concluding the sentence 
over which Margaret hesitated. 

“Yes, and honored me by asking me to be his 
wife , 55 she said slowly. 

“ And you refused him ? 55 

“Yes, I refused him. I was sorry about it, and 
am sorry still, for he is a man, I am sure, any 
woman might love with entire trust. A quiet, 
scholarly, high-minded gentleman, thoroughly 
wedded to his profession, not much given to ladies 5 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


95 


society, and it was unfortunate, sad even, that he 
should have made me his choice, for I could not 
marry him. Why, you ask ? Because I could not 
love him.” 

“But why not?” insisted Miss Price, who was 
always able to give a reason for her feelings. 

“ I do not know. Set it down to lack of harmony, 
of temperament, or w'hat you will. I felt that 
though he loved me, he would never be my friend 
in the broadest, fullest sense of the term. Those 
even, unimaginative natures are rarely sympathet- 
ic ; and even sympathy is not enough. Some sym- 
pathy is maddening ; it must have understanding. 
Do you know what I mean ? It would be utterly 
impossible, it would be the death of the best part of 
me, to marry Paul G-rey,” she exclaimed, with a 
little shiver of feeling in her voice. 

But Rebecca Price did not understand. She even 
found herself wondering in a vague way if Margaret 
might not sometime change her mind, if she were to 
see much of the Professor. She had seen people do 
that. He is very much in love with her, she solilo- 
quized. 

“ Did you have any idea, Margaret,” she asked 
presently, “who Mr. Thorne’s friend was when he 
spoke of sending for him ? ” • 

“ Not in the least. How could I ? And I do not 
see how I could have prevented his coming if I had 
known,” she said wearily. “ I could not have told 
Mr. Thorne.” 

“ No more you could, my dear girl ; and do not 
make yourself unhappy about it ; it will all come 
right,” said Miss Price reassuringly. 


96 


A ROMANCE OF TI1E NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ What a blessed comforter you are, Rebecca ! I 
feel better already for talking to you. It is an old 
saying that a trouble shared is half gone ; 55 and 
Margaret slipped her hand confidingly into that of 
her friend. 

But when Paul Grey made his confession to his 
friend that night as they walked home through the 
moonlight, and asked for comfort, his friend had 
no comfort for him. Sympathy he gave in un- 
stinted measure, but he had watched the face of 
the woman whom Paul Grey loved, when she 
greeted him. He saw no glint of love-light in those 
clear, candid eyes ; and knew that her pulse beat 
not one throb faster for his presence. 

“She was kind to-night , 55 urged Paul almost 
hopefully ; “maybe she means to relent ; she may 
have changed . 55 

Thorne could have smiled at the simplicity of 
the man, at the slender thread upon which he 
would w^eave a hope, He pitied the weakness, yet 
honored the man that he had it. To hold out a 
hope to him now would be as cruel as false, and he 
remained silent ; but his friend would not have it 
so ; he must reply, and he said gently : 

“I have known Miss Steyne so short a time and 
seen so little of her that I cannot speak certainly ; 
but I would take her to be a woman who, when she 
once made up her mind about a thing of that kind, 
would not be likely to change it. I am sorry for 
you, ray friend ; 55 and he laid his hand on Paul 
Grey’s shoulder with a touch as gentle as a woman’s. 
“But better far, aye, a thousand times better, 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


97 


never to marry, than to marry a woman who does 
not love you.” 

“ You do not count the chance that I might win 
her love afterwards ? ” 

“No ; a man ought not to dare that. You are 
happier now than you would ever be again, did 
such a thing happen. You are devoted to your 
work ; few can be so wholly content as you. It is 
your nature to be even and moderate in your ambi- 
tions, yet you have made such rapid progress as 
must tell you that you have within you the elements 
of success. You may reach what you set out to 
reach if you do not fling it away. Lytton says, 
‘No man or woman ever yet found fair play for 
heart or mind, who by hook or crook managed to 
marry the wrong person.’ Heavens ! how true 
it is ! ” 

They were at the door of the inn ; they said good- 
night and separated. 


98 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


X. 

PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 

Next evening Professor Grey and Mr. Thorne 
took tea with the ladies of Steyne House. They 
had been down at the bluffs the entire day, study- 
ing and classifying the formations. Gabriel, who 
had been with them, returning early, stopped with 
his tools on his shoulder at the front veranda to 
speak to his mistress. 

“I dunno,” he said, “ jes’ wlia’ all dey talks 
erbout, but de gen'lemen am mighty pleased at 
wha’ dey fin’ down dar in de bank ; ’deed dey is, 
an’ dey say my missus am berry fort’nit ’ooman, 
an I’s proud, missus, to hab such cherkin news to 
tell yer.” 

“ I appreciate your kind wishes, Gabriel, and we 
will all rejoice together in my good fortune, what- 
ever it may be,” she replied lightly, for she counted 
that Gabe’s imagination was on an ignis-fatuus 
chase. 

But when Professor Grey and Mr. Thorne had 
reported the result of their investigations, and she 
had received their hearty congratulations, she felt 
that she truly was a fortunate woman. Beneath 
the strata of slate which had attracted their atten- 
tion, they had found a thick vein of bituminous coal, 
which Professor Grey had identified as the cele- 
brated Pittsburg seam of the upper coal measures 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


99 


running from Pennsylvania into Virginia, and vary- 
ing from three to twelve feet in thickness — coal 
highly adapted for general purposes. This made 
her estate valuable, doubly so since the line of rail- 
road would make the coal available in the market 
at once, did she wish to have it operated. 

An interest was being awakened in the coal-fields 
of Virginia at this time. Syndicates of Northern 
capitalists were coming into the state buying 
largely to hold ; a few were preparing to develop 
its unknown wealth, but it was the beginning of a 
new era. As a necessary step they were providing 
railroad facilities. 

It was with one of the strongest of these com- 
panies that Mr. Thorne was connected, and in 
whose interest he was in Virginia. He had been 
selected for this important position because of his 
fine bxisiness capabilities and his integrity of char- 
acter. He possessed to the fullest degree the con- 
fidence of the members of the company, many of 
whom were his personal friends, and when he had 
said to Margaret Steyne, “Our company will ac- 
cept my valuation of the property,” it was not 
said in a boastful spirit, but because he knew they 
would do so. 

“I am grateful to you, Mr. Grey, and to you, 
Mr. Thorne,” said Miss Steyne cordially, “for the 
great service you have rendered me to-day. But 
since you have been so good as to discover all this 
wealth for me, I am afraid you will have to tell me 
how to manage about it. I have not been educated 
to this sort of thing. It is the traditional elephant 
over again.” She had turned her eyes instinctively 


100 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


toward Thorne as she ceased speaking, and it was 
he who answered. 

“ If you desire my opinion,” he said, “ I will give 
it freely. But you have a brother, perhaps, or some 
relative whose judgment and advice you would rely 
upon, in undertaking anything like this ?” 

“ I have no brother, no relative in the world, that 
I know of ; no one upon whom I have a claim. I 
must rely upon strangers when it comes to things 
of this kind.” 

Her bearers felt the sadness of her words, but she 
gave them no opportunity to remark, but went on 
speaking in the quiet manner usual with her. 

“I shall indeed be grateful for your opinion, Mr. 
Thorne,” she said ; and added in a lighter tone, “ you 
will have no preconceived conclusions to controvert ; 
the field is barren, not even the stalks of a past crop 
of ideas infest the soil.” 

“I should have no apprehension, for you are not 
radical in your tendencies,” he said. “First of all, 
then,” he began, “I would say that you have too 
much land lying idle and unproductive to be a good 
landlord. If I were you I should sell off fifty or 
even a hundred acres from the lower end of the 
plantation, and improve the rest. But sell the sur- 
face only, and reserve the coal. On no condition 
would I sell a part of the coal. Sell it all, or hold it 
all and have it worked on a royalty, if a conpany 
can be had to take it that way. Think over what I 
have said. I will confer with our company, and 
when I return I may have a proposition to lay be- 
fore you for your consideration, though our com- 
pany prefers to buy coal lands outright.” 


A ROMANCE OF TUE NEW VIRGINIA. 


101 


They were seated about the tea table, when Miss 
Steyne renewed the conversation : 

“ I feel that you have given me good advice about 
my land, Mr. Thorne, and I shall remember it. 
You and Miss Price agree admirably in one par- 
ticular.” 

‘ ‘ And in what particular, may I ask ? ” 

“She has been protesting vehemently — that is, 
the New England half of her has— against the non- 
productiveness of the land, while the Southern and 
more indolent half falls in with the existing state of 
things. ” 

‘ ‘ W ell, now, the doctrine of ‘ accepting things as 
they are ’ has been so unceasingly dinned into the 
ears of the Southern people since the war, it would 
be small wonder if our energies became entirely 
paralyzed, for a text constantly repeated and con- 
stantly heard does have its effect, though you may 
smile,” declared Miss Price. 

“It was Napoleon Bonaparte, was it not, who 
said that a people are ruled by epigrams ? ” observed 
Thorne. 

“ It was Napoleon who said ‘ When you don’t know 
what to do, do nothing,”’ returned the professor, at 
which they all laughed. 

“Oh!” exclaimed Margaret; “would not the 
ashes of Napoleon arise in protest against words of 
his being quoted in extenuation of inactivity, — 
worse, as slayers of ambition ? But I am convinced 
that not even Napoleonic epigrams would suffice to 
restrain Rebecca’s activity. She is only lulling her 
conscience to rest now, with promise of a more vig- 
orous and aggressive future.” 


102 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Miss Price smiled, and Margaret’s amusing anal- 
ysis proceeded : 

“ I have wondered not a little how she is to satisfy 
her two natures, how reconcile them.” 

“ And circumstances do not compel a decision?” 
said Thorne. 

“No, or there could be no choice in the matter. 
I am wondering,” Margaret said, “whether or not 
a double nature would require a double conscience, 
and if so, would they not always be arrayed one 
against the other, and so make one uncomfortable ? 
How is it, Kebecca ? ” she asked, turning a quizzical 
look on her old friend. 

“ Do I act as though I was uncomfortable in my 
mind ? ” asked the matter-of-fact spinster, who was 
well able to take care of herself in a conversational 
skirmish. 

Margaret laughed : “No, my friend, you do not. 
But in time I hope to see you wholly Southern in 
temperament and habit, and entirely comfortable 
in consequence. To eradicate or smother the demon 
of activity in your nature, Eebecca, shall be one of 
my aims in life.” 

“You will find the transforming of a New England 
temperament into a Southern one a difficult thing 
to do. Inherited traits, strengthened by habit and 
environment, are not easy to overcome or supplant,” 
said the professor gravely. 

Margaret looked across the table at Thorne, and 
there was an answering smile in the eyes which met 
hers. The professor’s sudden change of front was 
something of a surprise to both. 

“ How long do you think, Miss Price, it would 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


103 


take in a wholly Southern atmosphere to eradicate 
from your nature the New England tendencies to 
thrift and industry which are your inheritance ? ” 
Thorne asked, turning to Miss Price with a new in- 
terest in his voice. He liked her straightforward 
replies, for she never shirked an answer, but faced 
it squarely ; important or trivial, it mattered not ; 
so now she answered with honest deliberation : 

“ I don’t believe it could ever be done. I like to 
work, I like to manage things, and I like to manage 
people. But there are things which would be harder 
for me to give up than my habit of industry.” 

“ Will you tell us what they are ?” inquired the 
professor. 

“ Well, now,” she began, the preliminary words 
betraying her New England origin, “ for one thing, 
my religious customs and beliefs, the way in which 
I worshiped. I could never rightly worship in any 
other way than I was brought up to worship, nor 
could I change my belief.” 

“You think that one’s religious belief is the 
hardest thing to change ? ” 

“ I do,” she replied. “ I don’t believe we ever get 
very far away from the teaching and beliefs of our 
childhood, our first faith and worship. It is a part 
of our way of life. And the way we spend our 
holidays ; they would not be holidays to me unless 
observed as in my young days. ” 

“Miss Price acknowledges to being wholly New 
England on Sabbaths and holidays, ” declared Mar- 
garet. “ It is clear, Professor, that you can claim 
your countrywoman uncontaminated by Southern 
habits of living.” 


104 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ Because she has found here nothing better, 
nothing higher, else she had not adhered to them. 
She would have embraced a better, a purer religion 
had she found it ; accepted a higher civilization had 
it environed her,” the professor insisted. 

“Without fail ? ” questioned Thorne. 

“What is true of tribes and nations is true of 
individuals ; and history tells us,” continued Grey, 
“that when transplanted into a more civilized 
country they embrace the beliefs and adopt the 
customs and habits of the higher civilization, so that 
with time and opportunity they assimilate and be- 
come one people, casting off the old life as a garment 
they have outgrown. You must believe that.” 

“ What do you think, Miss Steyne ?” asked Thorne. 

“Of the assimilation of races ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“I have come to think that we may be very 
greatly deceived in the results we count on from 
such association. The weak race may in the small 
things of outward life, such as manner and dress, 
conform as nearly as possible to their new surround- 
ings ; but in the more important things, in the heart 
of them, they do not to the degree commonly sup- 
posed. This is particularly true of the African 
people, who are great imitators of what pertains to 
the outward man. Yet three hundred years of con- 
tact with the habits and environments of English 
and American civilization have not banished the 
fetich, the voodoo, and the belief in the power to 
conjure, or the potency of the amulet against witch- 
craft and disease. The grisgris is yet burned in 
front of the doorstep of a cabin to curse an enemy. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


105 


The descendants of the oldest known slaves have 
not become as civilized as they might, even though 
education was denied them. There seems to be a 
lack of something that does not bring out grand 
and noble traits in them. Is it stability the race 
lacks ? 55 

“ That is about as near as it can be defined , 55 said 
Thorne. “ In proof of it, remove them from con- 
tact with the white race — even those who have had 
the highest civilization — and they take a leap 
backward into barbarism that would amaze the 
most sanguine . 55 

“ It seems hard to believe that education and ex- 
ample will do little or nothing for these people , 55 in- 
sisted Professor Grey. 

“ You mistake my meaning. Education will do 
much for any people, but it will not eliminate the 
deep, strong race traits from their blood. You will 
think that you have accomplished it, but you cannot 
count upon it with any degree of certainty. The 
strongest may keep evidence of them under control ; 
they may not appear in one generation, but will 
crop out with redoubled force in the next. It is the 
uncertainty that is puzzling. I will give you a bit 
out of life that has come under my observation, and 
in a way has been connected with my own, which 
will prove to you that I am not talking wildly . 55 

“I shall be glad if you will, Thorne ; for I shall 
know that it is true . 55 

“ I am a Southern man, by birth and education, 
having been born in Louisana. When quite young, 
as was the custom, I was given for my servant a 
mulatto boy called Jim. We grew up together, he 


106 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


being constantly about me, except for the years that 
I was attending college. He was bright and intel- 
ligent beyond the ordinary servant. He had a fine 
figure, coupled with a handsome, agreeable face, and 
a manner that would do honor to a higher station. 
When the w^ar broke out, Jim went with me through 
three years of it, my faithful servant and almost 
companion. At its close he went home with me. 
Shortly afterward he courted and married a pretty 
mulatto girl named Eliza, from an adjoining planta- 
tion, who had filled the post of seamstress and maid 
to the two young ladies of the family. She had 
been well instructed and brought up amid the refine- 
ment of an elegant home. Jim and Eliza were fitly 
mated and were a handsome couple. They had been 
taught to read and write, as many of the house 
servants in Louisiana were. When the first excite- 
ment over emigration to Africa broke out in our 
country, Jim and his wife, with two other young 
couples from near them, were among the first to 
join the expedition to that country, where they ar- 
rived all in good time. They had been there but a 
short time, however, when their wives voluntarily 
left them, and went to live with these savage men. 
Jim is now at home, I am told, without his wife.” 

“ Astonishing ! ” ejaculated the professor. “ But 
that certainly is an exceptional case. It must be,” 
he reiterated, startled in spite of himself into a doubt 
of the position he had assumed. 

“It is an exceptionally strong one, I own,” said 
Thorne, “but it is true. You cannot count on any 
people — surely not on the African — getting away 
from and outgrowing his inherited traits. They 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


107 


seem to have stronger blood, deeper, more tenacious 
race instincts and traditions, than almost any other 
people. They are a peculiar people, and you must 
pass your life among them to know them. How 
then are you going to educate well and direct wisely 
a people of whose nature and requirements you know 
nothing ? You will expect too much. You will 
meet disappointment. There will be individual 
cases of success, hut I speak of the race.” 

“You take a discouraging view of the matter,” 
returned the professor. ‘ ' In what points do you 
think we shall fail, if the word is not too strong ? ” 

“You have removed all restraint from them sud- 
denly, which was the worst possible thing you could 
have done for a people who have not been self-con- 
trolled. You have given them entire liberty, which 
they interpret as license. From this condition will 
come a steady decrease in their morals and industry. 
You will not meet this phase of the question seriously 
for years yet, not until the influence of the older 
men and women is destroyed or weakened and their 
numbers depleted by death ; but it will come. You 
will have a younger generation of almost uncon- 
trolled people, idle and impatient of restraint, who 
will resent the line of social demarcation drawn by 
the whites, and try by every means in their power 
to break down all racial lines, to sink all social dis- 
tinctions. ” 

“You mistake the temper and intelligence of the 
Northern people if you think they mean to encourage 
such aspirations or labor to such an end,” declared 
Professor Grey. “ And I hope, Thorne, that time 
will prove you an alarmist, a false prophet.” 


108 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“I can honestly say with you, I hope so. But I 
repeat emphatically, you are counting far too much 
on what simply theoretical education will do for 
the African, the ex-slave. You persist in taking 
them seriously. You endow them with your sym- 
pathies, your resolution, your power to reason, and 
your desires. And they do not fit, but only be- 
wilder and unsettle them. They are going to have 
their minds badly joggled on social questions . 55 

“ Politically they will be controlled ? 55 remarked 
the professor interrogatively. 

“ Undoubtedly , 55 promptly returned Thorne ; 
“ just as the many have been governed for all 
time by the few, all fine twaddle to the contrary 
notwithstanding ; 5 twere too unsafe otherwise. 
The bestowing the right of suffrage upon the 
negro when you did was a wrong to him as well 
as to the whites. It was a mistake all round. 
You’ll be sorry some day that you did it . 55 

‘ 4 Miss Steyne, you are not radical, I happen to 
know. You have lived both North and South, and 
should be more able to see this question from an 
unbiased standpoint than either Thorne or myself. 
Will you not give us your views ? 55 The professor 
had turned deferentially toward his hostess and 
waited. . 

“ I know how earnestly you are laboring , 55 she 
said, “ and yet I can see how honestly you may 
blunder in the matter of directing and educating 
the freedmen. It is too late now to start right. 
The government, I have thought, would better 
have leased large tracts of land, which lay idle for 
years all through the South, and have furnished 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


109 


labor for the negroes, with certain military restraint 
and protection, till the country had grown quiet 
and settled, and they could have learned what 
freedom meant, learned the true meaning of their 
changed condition. To take a helpless child from a 
sheltered home where it has never known a respon- 
sibility, and fling it out upon the world, may lead 
to its learning how to live decently, but it more 
often leads to pauperism and depravity. And what 
of the child’s suffering ? It was a cruel thing to 
do.” 

“You take up the humanitarian side of the 
question first,” said Professor Grey. 

“It is the side that I see most of, the side that 
presses upon me here. They must live, first of all ; 
and they are getting wrong ideas of life, learning 
to live on charity instead of by the honest labor of 
their hands. Demoralization and education, true 
education, cannot go hand in hand. Am I not 
right ? ” 

“You are wholly right,” he returned warmly; 
“right in all that you have said. Our moral 
natures should be our first and greatest care.” 

“ Save the present generation from vagabondage, 
would be Miss Steyne’s shibboleth,” said Thorne. 

“ Would it not be a good one ? ” she asked with a 
smile. 

“Most excellent! Inscribe my name on your 
banner,” he returned. 

“How is it to be done? How are they to be 
saved from vagabondage ? ” It was the professor 
who spoke. 

“Ah! we all have stumbled,” said Margaret. 


110 A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 

“But responsibility for themselves in health and 
sickness is a hard lesson for them to learn ; how 
hard, you who know nothing of their ways or their 
natures will never understand. Slavery is contrary 
to natural right, and it had its misfortunes, its sins, 
but in sickness the slaves were cared for, and in 
old age they were not turned away to die of neglect. 
And a peaceful old age free from care is not the 
lot of all who are born free. But they are free now 
and must learn to live alone, and that should be 
the first education ; and while we should be pitiful 
and patient, we should not pauperize them by urn 
wise charity, nor teach them disaffection. We 
cannot afford to do it. Give them labor, and when 
they have done it, reward them fairly. And when 
we have done all this, give them schools for their 
children. The young are the only ones whom you 
can expect to benefit by the schools ; the older people 
are too busy with the more pressing cares of life.” 

“ Dear Miss Steyne, you have spoken wisely from 
your woman’s heart, and your words will go with 
me always, pleading bravely the cause of the freed 
people, and they could have no more powerful 
advocate.” 

Professor Grey spoke feelingly, with a light in 
his eye that caused Margaret to endeavor a little 
nervously to turn the conversation into a more 
comfortable channel by saying : 

“I fear I have not been as sympathetic with 
your view of this matter as you expected me to be, 
so I will turn you over to Miss Price, who always 
finds something comforting to say about every- 
thing.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Ill 


“I shall be delighted, Miss Price,” said the pro- 
fessor, turning with grave consideration. 

Rebecca Price looked a little reproachfully at 
Margaret, but set about giving the professor as 
much encouragement as the subject and her con- 
science would permit : 

“ Mr. Thorne has said that you do not under- 
stand the peculiar nature and characteristics of 
this people, whom you are trying to direct and lead 
to prosperity, and I agree with him. Your greatest 
trouble and discouragement will come through your 
not understanding. He has told you much that 
only an observant, intelligent Southern man could 
tell you.” 

“ That is unquestionably true ; I do not forget that 
he speaks from knowledge, as you yourself are doing. ” 

“ You are like the boy who handles a musket and 
won’t believe that it’s loaded. But the old slaves 
will give you no trouble,” she said. “ You will 
find them a decent, well-behaved class, and our 
most helpful factor in the control of the younger 
element. Yet, learning responsibility for themselves, 
for their daily food even, will be hard for them. 
For to the negro living is largely a matter of amuse- 
ment. He is a creature of large faith in the future, 
and no prudence for the present. You will need a 
plentiful supply of patience. As to their education, 
you have room for encouragement. They are not 
savages, they have already been given religious 
training and been taught habits of industry and 
good manners. Not a bad beginning, surely, but 
it will be remarkable if under the present conditions 
they retain it all.” 


112 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


The professor looked thoughtful, as though not 
quite sure that Miss Price’s encouragement was 
encouraging. But in the next pause of the meal 
he returned to the subject. 

“ I want to ask you a question, Thorne,” he said. 

“ As many as you like,” replied his friend. 

“ Do you not believe that out of this chaos some 
condition will soon be born for a harmonious adjust- 
ment of the question, when the situation may solve 
itself satisfactorily to both races, where mutual 
recognition of the rights of each will be reached, 
whereby they can assimilate ? ” 

“ You should goto our wise statesmen with your 
question. They seem sanguine of finding such a 
solution.” 

“ I will take your opinion now. I am sure to get 
theirs later.” 

“ You are welcome to it for what it is worth. 
The chaos political and social is extreme enough, 
of a surety, to evolve strange situations and strange 
results as well, and we may expect them, yet that 
they will be satisfactory to both races is not to be 
expected. The negroes are now the nation’s pets — 
of that part of it which is in power — but that stage 
will pass. The whole subject has been invested 
with a mass of sentiment which is the veriest bosh, 
and of which we shall have to rid ourselves before 
we can act intelligently. Then we shall doubtless 
try colonization and emigration many times over, 
but I have no faith in their success.” 

“Why not?” asked the professor. “I have 
looked upon emigration as the most likely solution of 
the matter. Great undertakings often fail at first.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


113 


“ It will not answer, because it will not suit the 
negroes’ purpose to emigrate. He does not love 
battle as does the white man, or victory for its own 
sake. He will never succeed as a pioneer ; his views 
of life are too light-hearted. Besides, this is home to 
him. He is more an object of interest here than he 
could possibly be elsewhere, which counts with hu- 
man nature. When he ceases to be an object of 
interest he will become an object of uneasiness. 
The increase in the race will be rapid. In a quarter 
of a century from now we shall be face to face with 
a race problem such as no other nation has had to 
deal with. We shall be willing to do anything 
then, but shall not be able to do anything, for the 
negro will have gotten to where he will demand 
not only full social equality and recognition, but the 
abolition of race lines.” 

“ A demand we could not grant,” promptly de- 
clared the professor. “ Still, we cannot blame the 
negro that he desires such a condition, for it would 
be his elevation.” 

“ It is a condition the black should not afford in 
a physical sense, for the mulatto does not have the 
strength and stamina of the white man, nor has he 
the physical endurance of the full-blooded black 
man.” 

“ If what you say is true it would be the worst 
possible condition for us all. But they do not wish 
it ; they are saying so right along. Their most intel- 
ligent leaders proclaim through press and pulpit 
that they have no such desire,” insisted the professor. 

“ And do you believe them ? Do you not know 
that deep down in the heart of every black man 


114 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


and woman is the desire to be white, by the side 
of which all other desires fade and pale into in- 
significance ? And this will strengthen with suc- 
ceeding generations, fostered as it is by unwise 
marriage laws in many of the Northern states, and 
unwise school regulations. He may not openly 
demand absorption by the white race, through 
marriage, but he will never cease to hope for it, 
never cease to work for it, never lose sight of the 
ultimate end and aim. It is the ruling hope of 
his life. If he may not be white, his descendants 
may. The black woman will not raise a black child 
from choice, but a white one. The mulatto woman 
will not have a black man for her husband, but with 
cunning aims to trap some white man into marriage. 
They will fasten themselves upon the white race of 
this nation like leeches. It means in the end amal- 
gamation, if the white race does not awaken to a 
sense of the danger in time . 55 Thorne stopped 
abruptly. “ I had not meant to say so much, 
Grey. You asked me a question and I have given 
you a dissertation. 5 ’ 

The professor’s elbow was on the table ; he leaned 
toward the speaker in his interest. 

“ You have given me what I asked for,” he said 
slowly — “ your opinion, and I am your debtor for 
more than you know.” 

u Although not aggressive in argument, Thorne, 
while at college, always had the faculty of discover- 
ing a side of his own to every question and holding 
to it through thick and thin, and he has not 
changed,” said Professor Grey to the ladies as they 
rose from the table and sought the veranda. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


115 


“ Knowing my weakness you should not have pre- 
cipitated a discussion,” declared Thorne. “You are 
clearly to blame, Grey ; I shall not trust you again.” 

The sun, a great red disk, was slipping behind 
the mountains. The birds stirred in the branches 
and under the eaves as they nestled down for the 
night. The old gray goose had brought her flock 
of staggering goslings up the narrow path to a 
higher knoll, where they ranged themselves in 
squatting line, one of their number being selected 
a sentinel. Then every other downy gray head was 
thrust under a downy gray wing, and silence reigned 
along the line. Question : How did the first goose 
learn military tactics ? 

“With your permission I will smoke,” said 
Thorne to the ladies ; and lighting his cigar he ran 
down the steps, and in the gathering twilight 
walked back and forth with his eyes on the un- 
changing sky. 

Miss Price quitted her seat on the veranda and 
went down and joined him. 

“There is a tree over there by the edge of the 
wood, Mr. Thorne,” she said, pointing to a spot a 
hundred or so yards away, “ which I should like 
your opinion about. It is a new kind to me. If 
we go now we shall have time to see it before dusk 
falls.” 

And the two set off toward the fast darkening 
wood line. The stranger proved to be a pecan tree, 
a little out of its common latitude. Mr. Thorne 
doubted if the nuts ripened. While they stood in 
the shadow of the tree, the cry of an owl broke the 
stillness. 


116 


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“ There he goes ! I always like to hear him at 
this hour,” said Thorne, turning his face toward 
the dark strip of wood. “He must be an old in- 
habitant of these grounds. It is not the first time 
I have heard him.” 

“Well now, how queer that you should like owls, 
too ! Margaret is just daft over them, calling me 
out in the evenings to hear them ; and you two 
people are the only ones I ever heard say they liked 
owls,” declared Miss Price. 

“ That is strange ; we must have been born under 
the same star.” And a soft light came into the 
eyes of the man. 

But Miss Price was thinking of the man and 
woman down on the veranda. She was a little 
sympathetic with the man. Not that she wanted 
Margaret to love him ; no, she did not want that ; 
but her kind heart was troubled for him, for how 
could he help loving her dear girl ? 

“ Do you know Professor Grey well ?” she pres- 
ently asked of Thorne. 

“Yes, I may say I do. We were classmates at 
college and saw a good deal of each other, and 
have done so since, when circumstances have per- 
mitted.” 

“ I don’t suppose he could have been very wild in 
his young days ? ” Miss Price ventured, hesitatingly, 
not feeling quite certain that she should ask the 
question. 

“Wild!” exclaimed Thorne, struggling with a 
laugh he could not subdue at the vision of the 
sedate Grey in the role of the wild student. 

“Certainly, no one could charge Grey with being 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


117 


wild. He was discretion itself, I assure you. But 
you are seeking ground for our friendship ? ” he 
said, his tone half a question, “ You think it 
strange that, with no similar tastes, no common 
ground of congeniality, we should yet have been 
friends. Now, what makes you think I was wild ?” 
he asked, looking into the plain, severe face of his 
companion with an almost boyish enjoyment of the 
situation. 

“I never said — ” began Miss Price earnestly; 
then she stopped. “Well, young man, you get 
over a good bit of ground when you start out to do 
it.” The corners of her mouth twitched with 
amusement as she finished. 

Thorne laughed. “ I shall not quarrel with your 
present estimate of me, nor with your belief in my 
past, Miss Price,” he declared, “only don’t think I 
was ever quite a reprobate.” 

“I know j r ou wa’n’t,” she said, one of her pet 
Yankeeisms cropping out unexpectedly, as they often 
did in her earnest moments ; “I know you wa’n’t ; ” 
and she laid her hand kindly on the sleeve of his 
coat. “I am ’most twenty years older than you, 
and I have watched human nature too close to be 
easily deceived, closer than if I’d had a man of my 
own to be bothered about, I guess ; and I would 
have trusted you then, and I trust you now,” she 
declared positively. 

How the true, sincere nature of this woman 
helped him, a man of the world who sometimes 
wearied of everything ! This expression of kindly 
confidence touched him deeply. The strong hand 
closed over the soft, wrinkled one on his sleeve, and 


118 


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to her surprise it was warmly and firmly tucked 
under his arm, and he measured his steps to her 
slower ones as they paced up and down. 

“ I thank you, my friend ; I shall always call you 
that now. Your words have done me a world of 
good, but I have not told you what you wanted to 
know. I did not mean to shirk an answer, believe 
that. I knew Grey at college, as I have said, and 
liked him chiefly because I believed in his integrity 
of character and sincerity of purpose. I knew 
people whom he knew, which first brought us to- 
gether. Almost too much of a bookworm, though, 
for this brutally practical world. Yes, he is a man 
a woman could safely marry, if she loved him ; a 
man to be trusted, I believe, under almost any cir- 
cumstances, which is more than I would say of 
many men.” 

“ I am glad that you can speak so well of him,” 
she said. 

“ You know that he loves Miss Steyne ? ” and 
Thorne’s voice sounded cold as he asked the ques- 
tion. 

“ Yes, she told me about it last night. She says 
she is sorry they met again, for she cannot love him ; 
though I cannot see why, for he is a fine-looking 
man.” 

Her companion’s smile was hidden by the gather- 
ing shade. 

“I am only afraid,” she continued, “that Mar- 
garet will feel under obligations to him now, and 
that she must appear to him ungrateful. I wish 
somebody else had made the discovery down at the 
bluff.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


119 


Thorne stopped suddenly and looked at his com- 
panion. “ I see how it is,” he said, “ and I am glad 
you spoke of it. Don’t let her feel so fora moment, 
if you can prevent it. I will fix that. It shall be 
for me, for our company, that he has done this work. 
I will take care of that, remember,” he added in a 
low tone. 

His companion thanked him, and they had come 
up to the steps and into the presence of Miss Steyne 
and the professor. 

To one of these two at least, their coming was wel- 
come, and as Miss Rebecca passed by, Margaret 
reached out and touched her hand with a little caress- 
ing movement. 

To Paul Grey nothing mattered now, he knew 
there was no hope for him, that there never would 
be, never had been ; and as the two friends walked 
together down to the village that night, he said 
sadly but with decision : 

“You were right, Tom. I had not an inch of 
ground to stand upon. She is the only woman I 
have ever loved, and I shall never love another. I 
will go back to my work and — remember. ” 

“No, don’t take it that way, Grey,” Thorne re- 
monstrated ; “don’t go now. Oar company need 
just such a man for a time. I am convinced that 
we shall need the advice of a geologist in the selec- 
tion of lands we contemplate buying farther on. 
The Virginia coal-fields are not the Pennsylvania 
coal-fields, I am finding out. You cannot be so cer- 
tain of them. This is a new field, and we must 
move carefully in making investments in it. If it 
is work you want, live, interesting work, you can 


120 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


find it right here with me, in the field, and you will 
feel better if you stay outside your close walls till 
cold weather drives you within. You can fit out 
here, and we will start to-morrow morning,” he said 
heartily ; and Grey did as his friend wished, and 
said no more about going North. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


121 


XI. 

THE SECRET ROOM. 

It was the morning that Gabriel went down to 
Winston after the mail. Miss Steyne had settled 
that they were to have their mail twice a week ; and 
this morning the old black man could be seen pok- 
ing contentedly up the hill with the blue-jeans bag, 
held with a strap across his shoulder, in which he 
carried anything and everything, from a pair of hob- 
nailed shoes to Margaret’s pet magazine, mopping 
his face with his bright bandana as he came. He 
searched the pouch, and bidding his mistress a pleas- 
ant good-morning, sat down on the step the better 
to facilitate his search for a letter, which he finally 
found and transferred to her hand. 

Axem, the little black maid, stood watching him 
enviously the while, her restless bead-like eyes trav- 
eling quickly from one to the other. 

“ Why can’t I get em ?” she asked, pointing to 
the letter, “ I c’n go down dar quicker’n you’ns c’n ; 
you’ns legs hain’t good ; yo’s ole, an’ yo’s slo’,” she 
said, enumerating and exaggerating Gabriel’s dis- 
abilities with evident relish. 

“It’s cos ye can’t be trus’d, chile’ ; ye ain’t safe to 
do it,” answered the old man, rising. 

“ I’d do it fur her certain,” she said, nodding her 
small, woolly head toward her mistress. 

“Mebbe ye c’n do it some time, chile’ ; but it’s 


122 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


when ye gits to be moah angel-like dan ye is now, 
be shuali ob dat,” muttered the old man admon- 
ishingly, as he took his way round to the kitchen 
door. 

The little fury, wheeling herself into the path be- 
hind him, made up the most horrible faces at his 
back, while mimicking his walk. 

Her mistress could with difficulty restrain her 
laughter, but with the air of not having seen, she 
bade her go find Miss Price and ask her to come out 
to her. 

“Read this letter, Rebecca; it is from Lawyer 
Harris ; it is an acknowledgment of the check sent, 
and a certificate of deposit from the bank from the 
same ; read it and tell me what you think of it — of 
all of it.” 

“ Well, I think,” said Miss Price, after a careful 
second reading of the letter, “I think he is mighty 
curious about where that money came from. He 
does not quite ask you plain out where you got it, 
but he wants to know dreadful bad. I wouldn’t put 
it a bit past him to come up from Richmond just to 
see about it, if he could only find an excuse. He is 
very anxious you should write to him for advice on 
the smallest things, and assures you it will be no 
trouble whatever.” 

“Yes; ‘he lived but to help his friends’ might 
fitly be his epitaph, suggested by that letter,” re- 
turned Margaret smiling. 

“And,” continued Miss Price meditatively, “I 
am thinking he admires you, Margaret.” 

“Dont suggest such a thing, Rebecca, and don’t, 
I entreat, get into the way of looking upon every 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


128 


man who may come here as a probable lover/’ pro- 
tested Margaret. 

44 I hope I shan’t do anything of the kind,” said 
Miss Price, 44 but it’s either that, or else he wants 
to keep your business affairs entirely in his hands, 
and make you depend on him. 1 believe it’s both. 
But that man loves power dearly, mark my words ; 
and you will do well, Margaret, to learn all about 
your own business as soon as you can, and look after 
it too.” 

Miss Price had taken off her glasses and dropped 
them in her lap, a sure sign that she was a little dis- 
turbed. 

44 You may be sure I shall not send for him to 
come up, that his curiosity may be set at rest,” said 
Margaret decidedly. “1 owe him a goodly return 
for the selfish reticence he used toward me when he 
came first to see me to tell me of my cousin’s death. 
He allowed me to wait for information about my in- 
heritance, which he should have given me freely, and 
which was necessary for me to know. But seriously, 
Rebecca, I have had the same feelings about him. 
When Mr. Thorne returns, if he has a proposition 
for our consideration, I will send for Mr. Harris and 
consult him ; until then he must do the best he can. 
I have no conscience where his peace of mind is in 
question.” 

4 ‘It’s going to rain, I do believe,” said Miss 
Rebecca. 

Making a dab at her glasses she adjusted them 
and looked off across the valley to where the leaden 
clouds were crowding themselves sullenly together. 

44 1 must go look for that hen’s nest back in the 


124 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


woods before it rains, for the varments will only get 
the biddies if they hatch out. And I ought to go up 
to the attic ; I sent Hagar up there to sweep and dust 
up.” 

“ Let me go look for the hidden nest,” urged Mar- 
garet ; “ I will take Axem ; she can find it.” 

“ Yes, she can if she chooses to, but if you didn’t 
want her to, she’d be more likely to do it. I never 
saw such a child in all my born days,” declared 
Rebecca, “ and I’ve seen a good many of them one 
way and another. What do you suppose she was 
doing this morning ? ” 

“ I should not try to guess, I am sure,” said Mar- 
garet. 

“You knowhow old Hagar hates bugs and spiders 
and such things ; it seems kind of natural to her 
some way. Well, that young imp has found it out, 
and she went to the potato patch and got a lot of 
potato-bugs. She had them in her pocket as she 
sat on the doorstep as innocent as a spring litmb, 
and when Hagar’s back was turned she would start 
one in at the doorway. ” 

“ Well, she certainly is original in her mischief,” 
said Margaret, laughing heartily ; ‘ ‘ but what did 
you do ? ” 

‘ ‘ I called her to me and made her take them out 
of her pocket, and asked her what she did it for. 
She said, ‘Jes’ ter see Hagar spry roun’ ; ’ ” and the 
sedate narrator smiled now as she had not dared 
to do then. “I’m tempted sometimes to think, as 
Gabe does, that she would be more at home down 
below ; she hardly seems human. Well, I’ll go now 
and see to the dusting of the attic. I will have 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


125 


those trunks and boxes brought out from under the 
eaves, and you can examine their contents when 
you wish.” 

“ Yes, do so,” said Margaret ; “ it will be just the 
sort of work for a rainy afternoon. If it should 
prove tiresome we will take it homeopathic fashion, 
in small quantities.” 

The rain came, and the steady sweep of it on the 
old brown roof, as Margaret stood close under it in 
the wide, low-ceiled attic, wrought itself into a 
sweet minor melody to her consciousness. The mists 
were shifting in the valley ; while high above, the 
rain-clouds clasped hands and closed up their ranks, 
marching in solid array as a bevy of school-children 
across the common. Margaret loved nature in all 
its changeful, varying moods. But rainy days gave 
her the most exquisite pleasure. She fell into har- 
mony with nature’s mood and let her imagination 
revel unrestrained. She lived more fully in the 
atmosphere of the ideal than at any other time, and 
the plainest duties that came to her invested them- 
selves with a certain charm of vagueness and soft- 
ness. 

To-day, however, she knew that she was peculiarly 
alive and susceptible to impressions of all kinds ; 
that she was unduly sensitive and restless for the 
kind of day. She found herself moving aimlessly 
about from place to place, only to come back to the 
same spot by the window, where she drummed with 
her fingers on the pane ; and her eyes wandered 
down the old moss-gray roof, seeing the little rivu- 
lets of water as they ran in their hurrying course 
downward, uprooting a bit of lichen which floated 


126 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


like a fairy boat, carrying to the great harbor, the 
eave-trough, its elfin freight. 

Miss Price, in going through the house after she 
left Margaret on the veranda, slipped on the step of 
the kitchen door and nearly dislocated her ankle, 
which, after being bathed and bandaged, barely per- 
mitted her to reach her own room, where for a few 
days at least she must remain a prisoner. 

There Margaret left her resting, and wandered up 
to the old attic. She felt the charm of the place 
anew to-day and wondered that she did not come 
oftener. 

It was her fancy to people the ample rooms of this 
delightful old house as they might have been in the 
past, when tenanted by her dead and gone ancestors ; 
to think of them full-freighted with the activities and 
incidents of everyday life, fruitful of joys, of griefs, 
of despairs. Her memories had to do with grown 
people for the most part, for there had never been 
many children at Steyne House, although two young 
brides had come into the old house and grown into gra- 
cious dames there. But to-day, as she looked about 
the wide, low room in its undisturbed relics of past 
generations, she saw evidences of the little hands 
and feet that had joyously climbed to this happy 
resort of childhood. But a heavy footstep, suddenly 
sounding on the stair, rudely dispelled her day- 
dream, and she turned to see the turbaned head and 
good-natured face of Hagar. 

There was a little pucker in the old woman’s fore- 
head, and a look of anxiety on her usually placid 
face, which disappeared as she caught sight of her 
mistress. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


127 


44 Heah yo is, missus ! heah yo is at las’, ” she 
exclaimed in evident relief. 44 I’s mighty glad t’ 
fin’ yo, ye bettah beliebe ; ” and coming close up to 
her she dropped her voice to a whisper : 44 Hit am 

jes’ de providentest t’ing dat cud transpar, dat 
Missy Becky dun hurt he’ fut.” 

“ Why, Hagar, why do you say that ? ” her mis- 
tress asked in no small surprise. 

44 Yes ’tis, missus, I sesso ; I’s bin tryin’ lia’d ter 
see yo by yo lone se’f, when nobuddy wur nigh. I 
hab sumpin’ ter show ye, an’ sumpin’ dat I mus gib 
ter ye dis moon,” declared the old black woman, with 
mystery in every line of her anxious face. 

44 Something to give to me, something to show 
me, and it must be done this moon ?” reiterated 
Margaret wonderingly. 

4 4 Yes, I mus’ do hit dis moon,” the old woman 
urged with a strange insistence ; 44 ’n hit’s puty nigh 
gone, ’n I hain’t hed no chance befo’. I mus’ show 
ye now ; cain’t wait anudder day. Cum down wid 
me dis minnit, right er long, honey ; ” and Hagar 
began descending the attic stair, with her wonder- 
ing mistress close in her wake. 

She did not halt on the second floor, but continued 
down the next stair into the hall below, proceeding 
along in silence to the library door, which she passed 
through and stopped to lock after them. All this 
was done with such an air of mystery that Margaret 
found herself becoming excited as well. The old 
woman went straight to a narrow closet at the left 
side of the wide fireplace. Opening the door she 
took from a hook a long cloak, belonging to Mar- 
garet, and laid it on a chair. 


128 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


There was nothing in this cupboard or closet, 
Margaret knew, for she had looked into it often. 
It was only a narrow place, hardly two feet wide, 
just made to set in a pair of boots and hang up a 
coat, intended especially for the convenience of the 
master of the house. It was oak-lined. At the 
back, near the top, was a narrow shelf, beneath 
which a row of nails or hooks had been placed ; 
nothing else. Serious doubts of Hagar’s sanity 
began to shape themselves in the mind of her mis- 
tress. 

After removing the wrap, Hagar reached up and 
pushed with her finger on one of the pegs or hooks, 
as Margaret supposed them to be, when to her 
amazement, with a little shove, the back of the 
closet swung easily inward, leaving a doorway 
sufficiently large for a man to pass easily through. 

“ Cum on, honey,” said Hagar, passing through 
this opening. “Gib me yo’ han’, hit ain’t berry 
light heah ; ” and the strong black hand of the old 
servant clasped assuringly the delicate white one of 
her young mistress, as they began to ascend the 
narrow stair. A piece of soft carpet completely 
deadened the sound of their footsteps. 

Margaret was growing nervous. Where was she 
being taken by Hagar ? What was she to look at ? 
Was there some awful mystery here which she was 
to confront — one of those mysteries which are some- 
times to be found in very old houses, and of which 
she had read ? She trembled, and could scarcely 
control her voice. 

“ Where are you taking me, Hagar ? ” she asked 
faintly. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


129 


“ I’s jes’ takin’ yo up to show yo de secrit room, 
honey. ” 

“ The secret room ! ” cried her mistress, in amaze- 
ment ; and she stopped suddenly on the stair, her 
breath coming quickly, her face pale and wondering. 

“Yes, de secrit room. Why not ? Massa Henry 
used ter come up heah, and he say dat you’ll like it, 
cos nobuddy dunno it’s dar. I wuz t’ tell yo about 
it,” Hagar explained, 

“ There is no one up there ?” The voice sounded 
faint and shaky as she asked the question, and she 
was leaning against the wall of the narrow stair- 
case, afraid to proceed, despite Hagar’s assuring 
manner. 

“ Naw, honey, dar hain’t n’budy ’tall up dar ; jes’ 
nobudy ; ” and Hagar wondered why her mistress 
asked such queer questions. 

It was a turning stair, but not a long one, and 
a few steps brought them to a door, when Hagar, 
raising herself on tiptoe, took down a key from a 
projecting ledge above, unlocked the door and pushed 
it open. Margaret with hesitating steps entered the 
secret room, the one mystery of the old house. 

It was not a large room, nor was it a barren attic, 
for, though the brown rafters swept low at the sides, 
it was a comfortable, habitable, even homey room, 
with its cornered fireplace, its iron dogs and half- 
burnt logs in the old chimney. On the narrow 
mantelshelf stood a candlestick, with a pair of brass 
snuffers keeping guard alongside. A plain table 
occupied the center of the room, with a large easy- 
chair and a small straight-backed one near by. 
This was all. A square window facing south fur- 
9 


130 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


nished ample air and light. This window swung 
inward, and when Margaret opened it she discovered 
the location of the room. It was situated in one of 
the numerous gables of the great, rambling house. 
But that a room of its size could have been so 
cleverly contrived that she who had been an inmate 
of the house for months and explored its nooks and 
corners, had not suspected its existence, was more 
than she could understand ; and she gazed about 
her with a feeling of the unreality of it all. 

What a secure and comfortable hiding-place in 
time of war ! What a safe refuge for wandering, 
footsore bands of soldiers when close pressed by the 
enemy ! Patriot soldiers may have hidden here. 
The exigencies of war into which the nation was 
plunging when the old house was being built might 
have led the owner to the construction of this 
cleverly hidden room. Soldiers may have hidden 
there in the war so lately fought. 

Hagar would surely know about it ; she would 
ask her. But Hagar was coming toward her, and 
in her hands she carried a box — of polished wood 
with a brass hasp and knobby nails. 

Margaret gazed fascinated and doubting. Was 
it the box from the library mantelshelf ? was her 
first thought. It could not be, for she had seen that 
one there not an hour ago. No, there must be two 
boxes alike. They were alike, surely. She tingled 
to her finger-tips with the excitement of discovery. 

Was she about to solve the mystery of that other 
box, or would this baffle her ? 

She left the window and went to meet Hagar. 
No, she was not to be disappointed ; there was a key, 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


131 


a small brass key made fast to the box by a slender 
chain. Margaret’s hands shook as she received the 
box from Hagar, who said solemnly as she gave it 
to her : 

44 Massa Henry called me to ? im one day, jes’ a 
week befo’ he died, an’ he sez to me, 4 Heah, Hagah, 
I’s gwine to trus’ you wid dis heah box’ — de Lawd 
bress him ; 4 I’s gwine to trus’ ye to gib it to de new 
missus when she cum heah ; ’ an’ he say kin’ o’ low, 
4 Hope she will come an’ keep de ole place, an’ dat 
you and Gabe will alius lib wif her ; but ye mus’ gib 
her dis box. Doan’ gib it to ennybudy on’y her, an’ 
nobudy mus’ kno’ dat ye habit, nobudy ’tall. Will 
you min’ ? ’ he sez, arnest-lak. I cross my heart dat 
I tek care ob it an gib it to her. I sez, 4 Nobudy on 
dis arf ’ill eber set dar two eyes on it ’ceptin her.’ 
An dey hasn’t, missy, ’deed dey hasn’t,” protested 
the old woman, solemnly. 

44 1 believe you, Hagar ; I believe you,” said Mar- 
garet, earnestly. 44 But why did you not give it to 
mo before ? ” she asked, wondering within herself 
that Hagar had remained silent about it so long, 
and about the message left by her cousin. 

44 Cause I dassn’t ; ’deed I dassn’t ; de planits 
wuzn’t rite to bring ye good luck ; I couldn’t do it 
nohow befo’ dis moon, an’ I waited fer a sign, an’ 
las’ night I got de sign. Massa Henry he cum to 
de fut ob de bed an’ he look at me an’ he sez, 4 Gib 
her de box ! ’ I see ’im stanin’ dar plain. Den I 
kno’s de right time hab cum, an’ I’s watched fer ye 
all de bressed day. I kno’d it wur shuah ter cum, 
an’ when Missy Price twiss’d her jint an’ had ter 
go ter bed, I kno’d what ’twas fer, ’twas so I cud 


132 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


gib ye de box an’ show ye dis room, dis’ as my marse 
tole me.” 

“You don’t believe that, do you, Hagar? You 
don’t believe that such things happen just to open the 
way for us to do the things we wish, do you ? ” asked 
her mistress. 

“ Not alius ; not mean t’ings, missus, ner triflin’ 
t’ings, but when ye hes a call an’ hears it plain, de 
way alius cums. What made Missy Becca step 
crook’d on dat doahstep ? Now, tell me dat ! She 
neber dun it befo’.” 

The argument was unanswerable, and the mistress 
said kindly : 

“You have been a good and faithful woman, 
Hagar, faithful to your old master, and faithful to 
me. I thank you for it ; and be sure I would trust 
you just as implicitly as your master trusted you 
did I stand in need of such service. We will go down 
now to the library ; I do not wish to stay up here 
longer.” 

How humanly strange, and how strangety human, 
how altogether imcomprehensible we are ! thought 
Margaret, when she knew that she wanted to fly 
down to the library and open that box on the shelf ; 
that she cared less to know the contents of the box 
she carried in her hands than she did for the pleasure 
and satisfaction she would take in opening the one 
that had stood before her so long, impenetrable and 
baffling. 

She picked her way carefully down the stair after 
Hagar and through the closet, which the old woman 
closed after them, carefully replacing the wrap on 
the hook. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


133 


Margaret went on with quick steps up to Miss 
Price’s room, but Miss Price was sleeping and 
must not be disturbed. She must wait. Disap- 
pointed, she turned away. Waiting in her present 
state of mind was an impossibility. She would re- 
turn to the library and open that box alone. She 
was feverishly excited, yet strangely happy. She 
felt impelled by some unseen force, and seemed to 
have locked hands with some insistent spirit which 
drew her where it would. She had never felt so be- 
fore. With this feeling upon her, she ran quickly 
down the stair into the wide hall. 

A lovely flush was on her animated face as she 
held her box with both hands clasped tightly against 
her breast. The wide doors of the hall stood open. 
Outside on the veranda a man was removing his 
waterproof coat, and Gabriel was leading a horse 
round to the stable. 


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XII. 

TWO PEOPLE AND A RAINY DAY. 

“ When in thy eager eyes I look, to find 

A comrade to my thought, thy ready brain 
Delves down and makes its inmost meaning plain, 
Mind answers unto mind.” 

The man stepped over the threshold, and saw 
Margaret Steyne as she left the gloom of the wide 
stairway. It was Mr. Thorne. He paused an in- 
stant, and then came forward in that courteous 
manner which was a part of the strong personality 
of the man. 

“ Havel surprised a fair pirate escaping with her 
booty?” he asked smiling. “ That strong box 
plainly suggests hidden treasure or mystery of some 
kind.” 

When Margaret beheld him in the doorway a 
startled, mystified look flashed into her eyes, a 
look which might have passed for momentary sur- 
prise with one less observant than Thorne, so quickly 
did she recover herself. But it had been there ; 
and brief as it was the man had seen it, but too 
late to check his words. The next instant Margaret 
went forward and gave him her hand in graceful 
welcome. 

“ You certainly did surprise me, Mr. Thorne, by 
appearing so unexpectedly, and I may look some- 


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135 


thing like a robber or freebooter, but I can confess 
only to pirating what belongs to me, if that can be 
called piracy,” and she laughed a little nervously. 

There was more warmth in their greeting than 
there had been before. A rainy day is a bar to 
formality ; it brings with it an influence which per- 
meates the atmosphere and creates a spirit of cam- 
araderie in the most ungenial and unsympathetic of 
mankind. With this influence upon them they 
had met and spoken, and stood talking in the gray 
light of the old hall. 

“ I fear you have had an unpleasant ride, Mr. 
Thorne,” said Margaret, glancing beyond her com- 
panion through the open door where the rain fell 
steadily. 

“It is nothing,” he replied indifferently, as he 
hung his hat on the polished antlers and loosed his 
spur. 

Margaret stood with her treasure box clasped 
against her breast. But a little thoughtful frown 
sat between her straight brows,, and the color came 
and went on the creamy cheek with every flicker- 
ing breath. The lovely eyes held a sparkle in their 
depths, as she gazed out upon the leaden space 
framed by the doorway. How pretty she looked in 
her perplexity ! A man could not be mortal and 
not want to shield her, and count the service a 
sweet one. Margaret was different to-day : some 
unusual emotion was swaying her. Thorne 
watched her face, and knew that some feeling lay 
near the surface which she was trying to subdue. 
She appeared unconscious of his presence, yet he 
felt that there was something trembling on her 


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tongue for utterance ; something she wished to tell 
him that she was weighing and pondering over. 

Would she speak and strengthen the slender 
thread which ran through their lives ? He remem- 
bered her emotion at seeing him ; was she going to 
explain it ? His dark eyes never left her face. It 
was worth waiting for, and he waited silently, but 
with every sense alert ; eye, mind, and soul attuned 
to the subtlest sympathy. 

Slowly her eyes came back to his face, and he 
knew that he had not waited in vain ; that she was 
going to trust him, going to speak to him about 
something that touched her own life. He sighed, 
and then he knew that he desired to have this link 
or bond strengthened between them, desired it with 
a feverish intentness that he had not suspected. 

She spoke frankly and without hesitation, and 
he was glad of it. He wanted her confidence to 
come to him uncompelled and unreservedly, if it 
might. 

“ I am going to tell you,” she said, “ that you 
found me on the point of satisfying a curiosity to 
which I have been a prey ever since I came here. 
You see, I am honest. I w T ant to unravel a mystery. 
Will you help me ?” 

Would he help her ? Did she know that this 
was the one request he had hoped to hear ? — that it 
was the sweetest that could fall from her lips ? 
For was it not the earnest of a dawning trust in 
him ? 

“ I will help you most gladly in any way, at any 
time ; you have only to ask if I do not see,” he said. 

The words and tone were conventional, but the 


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137 


promise was dual. In liis heart he had silently re- 
corded a vow that he would keep to the end of life. 

“ Come into the library , ” she said. “ That box,” 
indicating by a gesture where it stood on the shelf 
over the old fireplace, “ has been a tantalizing mys- 
tery to me for so long. I have never been able to 
open it ; no key could be found to unlock it. The ex- 
terior, as you say, is suggestive of something out of 
the usual ; it has tantalized me, seeming at times 
to mock me with its strength and security. To-day, 
only just now, Hagar gave me this box, which she 
says was left by her old master in her possession for 
me. Now, the boxes are exactly alike ; do you not 
see ? ” 

“ They certainly look alike,” he answered. 

“ Surely they are ; and there is a key attached 
to this one.” 

He stepped quietly to the old fireplace, reached 
down the box, and placed it on the table beside the 
other : “ They are counterparts, alike in every 

particular, unless the locks should differ,” he 
said. 

4 ‘ Oh, I hope not ; that would be quite too disap- 
pointing,” exclaimed Margaret. 

“We shall soon know,” he replied ; and the two 
heads bent silently over the work with the same 
interest and object, to fit the key into the lock of 
the other box. 

The chain which held the key was short, mak- 
ing it awkward work ; and Margaret’s hand inad- 
vertently touched Thorne’s. She flushed a little 
and drew back in the shortest possible way, saying : 

“ You will do better alone.” 


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“Not unless I may snap the chain,” he replied. 

“Snap it,” she said. 

His hand closed over it, the chain parted, and the 
key la} r in his hand. 

Margaret thanked him, and taking the key, 
quickly inserted it in the lock of the sphinx like box, 
and turned back the lid. The box was empty. 
She smiled down at its emptiness a little triumph- 
antly, Thorne thought. 

“ Are you not disappointed ? ” he asked, a little 
puzzled by her indifference to the barrenness of 
results when she had been so eager about it. 

“No,” she said ; “ I hardly expected to find any- 
thing ; I wanted to open that box.” 

Had she looked toward her companion she must 
have discovered his amusement at what he con- 
sidered her purely feminine logic. But Margaret 
was looking at the small key. Turning it over in 
her hand she finally reached it to Thorne. 

“ What a peculiar key ! It bears a foreign stamp 
and is quite unlike anything one sees. It must be 
very old. Yet I seem to have seen a key like it 
before, but I cannot think where.” 

“ From small things spring great results,” quoted 
Thorne, smiling. 

“The results in this case are satisfactory.” said 
Margaret, smiling. “But that is one of Rebecca’s 
pet sayings.” 

At the mention of Miss Price’s name, Thorne 
remembered that he had not inquired for her, and 
he made haste to repair his seeming indifference by 
asking for her. 

“ How thoughtless of me ! ” said Margaret. She 


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139 


then told him of the accident to Miss Price’s ankle 
that was keeping her to her room. “ She is resting 
now, and I am sure will be sorry to have missed 
your visit, for she has a sincere liking for you.” 

“ Strange, isn’t it ?” he said. 

“ Yes, it is,” declared Margaret, determined not 
to humor his audacity. “It is strange, because 
Rebecca is a very conservative person and not given 
to sudden friendships.” 

“ I am proud of the distinction. It pleases me to 
be liked by some people. People of strong individ- 
uality attract me, and Miss Price has that. She is 
altogether one of the most certain people I have 
ever known. Her words go straight to the mark ? 
like a bullet from a rifle.” 

“Yes,” replied Margaret; “I have observed it, 
and it is a refreshing bit of honesty. You always 
know just what she means.” 

“I always distrust conversational jugglers my- 
self,” said Thorne. “Like people who are fond of 
snakes, they will bear watching.” 

“ Do you think that is always true ? — of the people 
who like snakes, 1 mean ? ” 

“I have found it so, in the little experience I 
have had,” he replied. “ But I regret that I am 
not to see our friend to day. Will you express to 
her my sympathy ? ” 

“ With pleasure. You are not remaining long in 
the neighborhood, then ? ” 

“ No ; my coming was unexpected ; it was the 
result of a telegram I received last night, calling 
me North on business. I rode my own horse down, 
the bay colt I recently purchased. He brought me 


140 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


the thirty miles without turning a hair,” he added, 
with all a horseman’s pride in his favorite. 

“And then, after all, you were too late for your 
train ? ” 

“No, I was in good time, hut there had been an 
accident down the road which threw out the morn- 
ing train. So I made no time after all.” 

“ And you rode all night, and it was so dark ?” 
The sympathy in her voice was commensurate with 
the hardship endured in an all-night ride, as seen 
from a woman’s point of view. The man under- 
stood this, and his eyes came back to her face. 

“ I’m all right,” he said. “I had several hours’ 
rest this morning, and came up here to tell you of 
my going.” 

“You are not going for good ?” she said interrog- 
atively. 

“No, I am not going away for good,” he said 
slowly. He was thinking how little his going out 
of this woman’s life would mean to her. “ I shall 
not be absent long ; two weeks may see me back. 
But part of my errand to-day is to learn if you wish 
to arrange for the development of your coal, for if 
you do, it is one of the matters I wish to bring 
before our company.” 

“Yes,” she said, “I have decided to follow your 
advice in the matter, and I leave it in your hands 
to arrange about it. If anything can be done to 
furnish work for the unemployed, it should be done 
now, when it is so sorely needed.” 

“ Then when I return I will bring you a definite 
offer, and will come to see you as soon as I can. I 
brought with me a small plat of that part of your 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


141 


land. I had our engineer prepare it, thinking it 
would be of use to you .’ 5 

He took a paper from the breast-pocket of his 
coat and spread it out before her on the table. “ It 
shows the line of survey just run, the coal-bed, and 
the boundary lines. By looking over it you will 
soon became familiar with the situation.” And 
he explained to her the markings, making some 
additional ones with a pencil that she might more 
readily comprehend. 

“I am grateful for your kindness. This map is 
just what I need for an intelligent understanding 
of the matter,” said Margaret. 

“The trouble was slight; you are more than 
welcome,” he returned. 

“But I am already indebted to you, Mr. Thorne, 
for much kindness and advice. The kindness, I 
assure you, I appreciate, and hope to repay some 
day; but the advice,” she said smiling, “I fear I 
am hopelessly in debt for ; but I shall show my 
estimation of its worth by following it.” 

“Permit me to be your friend,” he said, “and 
never speak of obligation again. And now ” — he 
went on quietly, not waiting for a reply — “ now that 
I have completed my errand I will not trespass 
further on your time. Your other treasure-box is 
unexplored ; ” and he smiled again as he looked 
down at the empty box. 

“ How much time have you ?” asked Margaret, 
looking up at the dark face above her. 

He had risen and taken up his gloves from the 
table ; he took out his watch. 

“ Just three hours,” he answered grimly. 


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A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ Then stay and spend them here, if you would 
like — if it would be more pleasant for you. As an 
inducement you may share with me the pleasure 
of exploring my other treasure-box . 15 And the 
friendly brown eyes sought his with that look of 
expectant comradeship which proves so irresistible. 

But what strange influence was at work with 
these two lives to-day ? Did some adverse invisible 
power control the chain of circumstances which was 
winding its length about them ? 

“We may find something to interest us , 55 she 
continued; “and then when Bebecca wakes we 
will go up to her and you will not have made j^our 
visit in vain ; you will both be happy . 55 

“I will answer for my happiness whether I see 
Miss Price or not , 55 murmured Thorne under his 
breath, while a wave of feeling swept over his face 
which, had Margaret Steyne seen, must have startled 
her, but he turned away his head. 

When he faced her again and spoke she neither 
heard nor saw any sign of the momentary conflict 
of heart and mind. 

“I thank you. There are high and low degrees 
in measuring life , 55 he said smiling. “Have you 
ever tried spending a half-day at the tavern down 
there ? 55 

“ I never have , 55 she replied. 

“Then you cannot know how very kind you have 
been. It gives me more happiness than I can 
describe to accept your invitation . 55 

He sat down. It was a reckless impulse of the 
heart which he followed, but he would take the 
next few hours unquestioningly. They had come to 


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143 


him without will or thought of his, and why should 
he deny himself this brief companionship with this 
lovely, pure-hearted woman ? Why deny himself 
the intellectual sympathy which his soul craved as 
the thirsty man craves drink in the desert ? There 
was no wrong, he said ; there could be none. He 
knew his strength, and no one would suffer but 
himself, and — well, he could afford that. A little 
pain more or less could make no difference in his life. 

Was it strange that he should think of Paul Grey 
at this moment ? He did not know why, but he 
did think of him and began speaking of him to 
Margaret, telling her how much the professor was 
enjoying his first experience of camp life ; that he 
was gaining flesh and strength and looking much 
better already ; that he had more than once ex- 
pressed his satisfaction that he had not returned to 
Richmond or gone back North as he had thought of 
doing. “ And,” he continued, “ that brings to mind 
a question I wanted to ask you, Miss Steyne. Have 
you heard from your lawyer about the check you 
sent to him ? ” 

“Yes, I had a letter from him this morning 
which contained a certificate of deposit from the 
bank.” 

'• Why do you suppose he was so long about re- 
plying to your letter ? ” asked Thorne. 

“Oh, I am to blame for that,” she confessed 
naively. “ There was no delay on his part. I did 
not write immediately.” 

He was beginning to tell her that she had done 
wrong, when he was interrupted by an exclamation 
from her. 


144 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“Mr. Thorne,” she said, “I know now where I 
saw that key, the key like this one, and the one 
that belongs to this box. ” 

She had rested her elbows on the table and was 
clasping and unclasping her hands in the old child- 
like fashion. 

“Lawyer Harris had it with his keys. It was 
the day we came up here first. He had read the 
will to me, and we were going to dinner, and he 
put all the papers that were lying on the table in 
the secretary and took his keys from his pocket to 
lock it. That key was among them.” 

“You are sure you did not mistake?” asked 
Thorne. 

“I am sure I did not. I noticed them partic- 
ularly ; he held them in his hand as he talked. He 
has the key to this box. Now, why did he not give 
it to me when he gave me the other keys ? Isn’t 
it strange ? ” She leaned across the table toward 
him in her excitement. 

“Yes, it certainly is strange, something not easy 
to account for ; ” and he looked thoughtful. “Do 
you know Lawyer Harris well ? ” he asked after a 
pause. 

“Not well; I have seen so little of him,” she 
said. 

“ Did you know nothing of him in your cousin’s 
lifetime ? ” he asked in surprise. 

“ Nothing whatever ; I never saw him. I never 
saw my cousin ; which must seem odd to you, but 
you knew, did you not, that he lived the life of a 
recluse here, never leaving if he could help, nor 
receiving anyone if he could avoid doing so.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


145 


“ Yes, I had heard something of it, but not what 
caused him to choose such a life.” 

“ His living as he did seems to have been as much 
a mystery to his friends as it was to strangers. I 
do not know his reasons, and will not judge him,” 
said Margaret. 

“You are kind in that,” he said; “ for we can 
rarely be just in our judgment of others’ motives.” 

“ Mr. Harris tells me that he was my cousin’s life- 
long friend, and Cousin Henry must have trusted 
him, it seems. I know that he came often — not 
often, but several times a year to visit him, and 
that he had charge of all Cousin Henry’s business 
affairs. I do not want to be unjust to Mr. Harris, 
yet I do feel a little uncomfortable over it, and wish 
that he was not such a stranger to me. I wish he 
was not, indeed. His letter of to-day proves him to 
be the possessor of a large fund of curiosity. I gave 
it to Rebecca to read and pass judgment upon.” 

“ What did she say of it ? ” Thorne was interested. 

“ Her impressions were not very favorable.” 

“ She is a good judge of character,” he asserted ; 
“ one of the best I know. I should like to hear her 
verdict.” 

“She says that Lawyer Harris is fond of power 
and dominion ; that what once comes under his 
power or control he will never relinquish willingly ; 
and I am afraid I think so too,” Margaret added. 

Her head rested on her hand, and the little frown 
showed between the dark brows. She was think- 
ing ; and a charming study she made to the man 
sitting opposite, who watched the sweet, expressive 
face in silence. 

IO 


146 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Mechanically, it seemed, she reached out her hand 
and drew the brass-bound box to her, and slowly 
raised the lid. It looked to be full of papers. A 
package neatly tied with cord lay on top. She re- 
moved ifc, bringing to light a small morocco case, 
the only thing in which was a small ring, evidently 
a lady’s. The band of gold was handsomely carved, 
but had been worn until its beautiful finish was lost 
and the fine gold fretted in places ; but it still held 
much of its old beauty. The center stone was of 
a pale dull-green color ; the gem was unknown to 
both Margaret and Mr. Thorne. Altogether it was 
an attractive-looking ring, but extremely odd, and 
interesting because of its oddness and its possible 
history. The diamonds set around the large stone 
were fine though small. There was but one other 
piece of jewelry in the box, a heart-shaped locket of 
more modern design, the fine workmanship of which 
was displayed in the arrangement of pearls and dia- 
monds set in the case. It held the picture of a young 
girl, a lovely brunette face, full of a subdued bohe- 
mian sweetness and charm. It was a face that ap- 
pealed strangely to your sympathies, without your 
being able to tell why. 

“ A Southern type in coloring and contour,” 
Thorne said. 

They looked at the sweet face a moment, and 
Margaret took from the bottom of the box another 
paper, carefully folded, on the outside of wdiich was 
written her own name. A new interest sprang into 
her face. This was something intended for her. 
Could it be a message from her cousin ? Her fin- 
gers trembled as she opened it. The ink was not 


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147 


faded ; what it contained could not have been writ- 
ten a great while. 

“You will pardon me,” she said, looking up at 
her companion. 

“I should not, if you do not read it at once,” he 
said. 

There was no date, but across the top was writ- 
ten : “ To my kinswoman, Margaret Steyne. ” And 
this was what she read : 

“As this life draws to a close, our vision becomes 
clearer, our duties stand out with wonderful dis- 
tinctness, and duties left undone the clearest of all. 

“The thought of you who are to come after me 
as my next in kinship is in my last hours my most 
accusing thought. I feel strongly that I have been 
careless, and carelessness is as damning to a man 
as the greater vices. I meant through all my life 
to he kind and merciful. I look back over the long 
years as I near the end of my journey, and I know 
that I have been weak and selfish. I should have 
sent for you and learned to know you. I should have 
helped you ; whereas I have not, and now it is too 
late. I do not know where to write to you. Caleb 
knows, but he has not told me, and I am not sure 
that he would tell me were I to ask him. I will 
leave what I write with my old black servant Hagar, 
for I know that she will be faithful and deliver it 
into your hands, as I shall direct her to do. 

“ I very earnestly want to do now what I can to 
help you ; I grieve that I cannot do more. I have 
made out a record of all transactions pertaining to 
my business, which if you will study carefully you 


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can understand ; also a copy of my will, and certain 
statements which you will find in the box with 
this letter. I do this because I do not want you to 
be dependent on Caleb, my lawyer, as I have been ; 
for with my clearer vision I see him the hard, mas- 
terful man he is, dominant and selfish. It will be 
best for you not to let him have more to do with 
your life than you can help. Do not let him rule 
you as he will wish to rule you. But do not make 
an enemy of him if you can avoid it, for he would 
prove a bitter enemy for man or woman. If you 
know of some good man whom you can trust, I 
would say put everything into his hands. 

“ It is my great desire that you may be prosperous 
and happy. I hope you will come here, and be spared 
to live many years in this old home where so 
many of your ancestors have lived, and that you 
will keep my old servants with you, for they will be 
faithful when others fail you ; and you will come to 
know that faithfulness is a rare virtue, and one to 
be highly prized. 

“ Be brave; all my life I have weakly borne a 
burden, when I should have shaken it off and been 
free. I have been weak. Men and women should 
have strength ; they need it. Remember, it is a sin 
to be weak. 

“ Heaven bless you, 

“ Your kinsman, 

“ Henry Steyne.” 

Margaret Steyne passed the letter over to Thorne. 
“ Read it,” she said. 

She was pale. The message from her cousin had 


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149 


moved her almost to tears. It had come to her un- 
fortunately to-day, when she had been on a nervous 
strain for several hours. Of all the feelings which 
her cousin’s letter called forth, compassion and 
sympathy dominated ; sympathy for her cousin’s 
sorrow, compassion for his weakness. 

Thorne realized this. He was one of those persons 
who intuitively understand women. A man, with 
all a man’s physical strength and courage, yet pos- 
sessing the instinctive, sympathetic perceptions of 
a woman, is a man rarely planned. Such a man 
was Tom Thorne. 

“ This is a remarkable letter of your cousin’s, Miss 
Steyne,” he said ; “ and while it reveals some of the 
shadows of his life, it must bring great comfort to 
you, for you will not feel so much a stranger to him 
now, when you have it from himself that he thought 
kindly of you and wanted you to live here and be 
happy in his old home — happier than he had been. 
I am glad for you,” he said warmly. 

“Yes, I am glad of it too,” exclaimed Margaret 
earnestly. “ It does make a difference. I feel now 
that I really had a cousin. He has a personality to 
me that he did not have before. I am not compelled 
to know him any longer through Lawyer Harris, 
and you cannot understand what a relief it is to 
me.” 

“You have found the comfort of it,” he said 
gently, “but you must not ignore the purpose for 
which the letter was written, which was to warn 
you against Lawyer Harris. Your and Miss Price’s 
judgment of the man is confirmed by what your 
cousin says, and he must have known him well ; 


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A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


‘ masterful and selfish/ he called him. I wonder if 
that is all ? 55 

“ I fear not,” Margaret replied. “ I have not told 
anyone, not even Eebecca, that he tried to dissuade 
me from coming here to make this place my home, 
even saying that my cousin expressed himself against 
it, and had thought I would better sell it.” 

“ Did he say that ?” asked Thorne. 

“ Yes, and I worried about it. I wanted to be- 
lieve that my cousin wished me to live here, that 
he had left a welcome for me, just as he did. But 
you do not know that I never had a home of my 
own before, and so you cannot know how I felt 
about it. I just had to come.” The unshed tears 
hung on the dark lashes, tears of homesickness and 
happiness. 

“And it was a brutal falsehood,” said Thorne, 
choking down the words to which he dared not give 
utterance. 

“ What do you think could have been his motive ? ” 
she asked. 

“That I cannot say ; but he had one, be sure of 
that, and we will try to discover it in time. Will 
you tell me all he said to you in that connection, — 
that is, — if you don’t mind ? ” 

“Surely I do not mind;” and she gave him a 
history of her business interviews with the lawyer 
from first to last, to which he listened attentively 
and in which he saw more than she guessed. 

“ I fear,” he said at the close, “ that your accom- 
plished lawyer is not only masterful and selfish, but 
a dishonorable scoundrel as well.” 

To Thorne it was plain that the lawyer had it in 


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151 


his mind to get possession of the plantation ; that 
he and no other was the purchaser who was ready 
to buy when she could be induced to sell ; and that 
he would now be the owner of the old family place 
had it not been for her resolution and firmness, and 
her love of home. 

“ Do you think he could have been the cause of 
my cousin’s mysterious retirement from the world ? ” 
she questioned. 

“ I should hardly venture an opinion about that. 
What your cousin has said, while it suggests such 
a thought, is very indefinite.” 

“I wish I knew all about it. It is so trying to 
know a little bit of one’s life, just a fragment, when 
you want to know all,” said Margaret. 

“It is trying ; yet we are always meeting with 
things that try us in that way. Our lives seem one 
tangled skein. The threads of other lives become 
knotted and crossed with ours, and we cannot get 
free from them and fling aside their influence, though 
it be an almost invisible thread that connects them. 
The influence of your cousin’s life is upon yours, 
and must ever be. As to this lawyer having had 
some power over Henry Steyne — for he speaks of 
his weakness in submitting to a burden — we can 
have not the least doubt. It may have been some 
difficulty, slight and unimportant, which he brooded 
over and magnified, possibly some event in his 
early life that he felt had compromised him in the 
eyes of the world, of which this man Harris took 
advantage. Or it may have been financial obliga- 
tion in some form.” 

“ It could not have been that,” insisted Margaret ; 


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“ there was no reason why he should be under any 
money obligation to Harris.” 

“ It is hardly probable, I admit ; but if it were so 
those papers in your box will doubtless make it 
plain.” 

“Yes, and we must examine them,” she said. 
“I am so glad you are here, for you will help me to 
understand about them, and tell me what to do, I 
am sure.” 

Margaret’s hand moved toward the box of papers, 
and then drew back. 

“No,” she said, “we will not look at them just 
yet. We will wait until we go up to Rebecca’s 
room that she may hear and know, for she is my 
elder sister in all things. I have no one else to talk 
to, you know. How fortunate for me that you 
should have happened to come to-day, just this day ! 
And how strange ! ” She murmured the last words 
under her breath, and with a puzzled expression of 
countenance. But low as the words were breathed, 
they did not escape his ear. 

He fell to wondering what lay behind the words, 
and the silence was broken only after some time, by 
Miss Steyne asking him a question which brought 
his wandering wits to a sudden focus, it was so un- 
expected and unusual. 

“ Mr. Thorne, do you believe in fate or in psycho- 
logical phenomena ? ” 

“ Do I believe in fate or psychological phenom- 
ena ? ” He repeated the question slowly, while 
groping for his mental balance, out of which he had 
for the moment been startled, not more by surprise 
than by the serious air with which it had been asked. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


153 


“ Yes, that strange force which has been called 
the key of the soul, but which is such an embracing 
ology that the scientific definition is not always 
closely adhered to. The unlettered call such things 
providences or warnings, the things that Hagar 
says she feels in her bones are going to happen be- 
fore they do ; intangible impressions of coming events 
by which you are affected, and of which you could 
know nothing beforehand, save in some occult way, 
and which really do happen, and ” 

She wound up with a pretty little gesture of the 
small hands, expressive of the breadth and scope of 
the science, and the indefiniteness of the definition. 

“ Does a belief in fate, I wonder, ever come to us 
through knowledge of incidents in the lives of others, 
or must the belief be knocked into us by our own 
personal experiences ? ” said Thorne meditatively. 

“ Anything that makes us feel,” said Margaret, 
“ we think about, and so come to some conclusion 
about soonest, I should say.” 

“ Yes,” said Thorne, “ and with all we are likely 
to have our preconceived ideas about such a belief 
overturned almost any day, for we are constantly 
meeting in our own lives with incidents that stagger 
us. And this new science of psychology —or rather 
revived old science — I have not thought enough 
about to come to any settled belief. I have a friend 
who, while an officer in the army and stationed at 
Calcutta, became interested in the science. He has 
talked to me about it, and I am interested. Will 
you tell me what made you think of it at this 
time ? ” 

“ Nothing very important. It was only a series of 


154 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


impressions and happenings,” she said after a mo- 
ment’s hesitation ; “ but they seemed so curiously 
woven together that I have been forced to think 
of them as bearing some relation to each other. 
I awoke this morning strangely impressed that some- 
thing was going to happen to-day — something un- 
usual. It was not the effect of a dream, for I had 
not dreamed, and was not depressed. I had the 
feeling that something would occur which would 
change, or rather influence my life strongly. It is 
hard to describe anything so elusive, and make 
it intelligible, but there was some difficulty to be 
met and overcome, and some one who would advise 
me and help me to meet it. I had no idea who this 
person was to be, but it was not anyone of my house- 
hold, not Miss Price. I received a letter this morn- 
ing, but that did not seem either to remove or to 
fulfill the impression — or presentiment ; it remained 
with me all the morning. Some hours later Hagar 
came to me with a mysterious manner enveloping her 
like a mantle, telling me that her master had come 
and stood at the foot of her bed last night and had 
commanded her to give me this box, here before us ; 
and she gave it to me in accordance with the in- 
structions which she believes came as a direct com- 
mand from him ; gave it to me in a lonely, unused 
room in the house, and with words and manner 
so impressive that I confess I began to grow hor- 
ribly nervous, almost afraid. I hastened to my only 
friend, Rebecca, for comfort and sympathy, but she 
was suffering and asleep. I could not wake her ; 
I was thrown back upon myself. I clasped the 
mysterious box, my legacy, my secret, whatever it 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


155 


might be, and ran downstairs, and on the thresh- 
old I met you. Do you wonder that I was startled 
when I saw you ? — that I was a little bewildered 
at first, and am so still ? ” 

While Margaret talked, Thorne sat like a statue, 
his dark eyes glowing with living fire. 

“ No,” he said at last, with a throbbing intensity 
of feeling underneath his quiet manner, U I do not 
wonder. It was a strange experience throughout. 3 ’ 
He said no more, but quietly studied every change 
in the thoughtful face of his companion, across the 
mysterious-looking box which stood open on the 
table between them. 

“ You said a few moments ago , 33 Margaret re- 
sumed, “ that our lives were a tangled web, crossed 
by the threads of other lives ; that, though but a 
thread held and bound us together, we could not 
loose it, nor shake off the influence of that other 
life. Now, let us pursue this theory as far as we 
can go, and see where it will lead us, though it 
prove an ignis fatuus . 33 

“ Willingly , 33 he said, “ Though it prove utterly 
fanciful it is interesting . 33 He was having a rare 
treat when she talked in this mood, and he knew it. 
He knew too, that in all probability they would 
never again talk together as they were talking that 
day. 

“ You have said that my cousin’s influence is on 
my life. We can understand that, and we can trace 
the lines of connection between the lives of Harris, 
Henry Steyne, and myself. Now, your life has been 
in no way connected with mine — is not now ; we 
cannot have influenced each other’s lives in any 


156 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


way. There is no thread here, however slight, is 
there ? ” 

There was a slight droop of the lashes over the 
dark eyes bent upon her from across the table, but 
he did not speak, and she went on. 

“ Have you ever known Henry Steyne or Lawyer 
Harris ? Has there been friendship or hatred between 
you, or have your life lines crossed in any way ? 55 

She was speaking slowly and hesitatingly, as 
though putting her hands before her when walking 
in the dark : “ You do not understand.” 

“Yes, I understand perfectly,” he replied. “If 
I seemed to hesitate, it was because I was going 
back in thought over my past life carefully, and I 
am quite certain that I never saw this man Harris, 
never heard of him before. Henry Steyne I saw 
once in New Orleans. It was when he first went 
there. He was pointed out to me casually by a 
friend on the street. I did not meet him ; I was 
young, still a student at college, and soon after 
went abroad to study, and remained away from 
home almost three years. There would seem to be 
no connection, no converging of interests, no influ- 
ence of one life upon the other, between either of 
those men and myself, if that is what you mean ?” 
he said. 

“Yes, I suppose it is,” Margaret answered. “ I 
was groping about for some ground on which to 
anchor your theories ; searching for a thread, if but 
a spider’s, with which to stay them.” 

“And you cannot find them. You will now have 
done with all such unsubstantial theories ; the 
threads do not exist,” he said laughingly. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


157 


She smiled, shaking her head negatively. 

“ I cannot find them,” she said ; “I almost wish 
I could. I have been puzzled, mystified, am puzzled 
still. Do you wonder that I am ? ” 

“ No, I do not wonder. Older persons than you 
have been puzzled and mystified, and with less 
reason,” he said ; and a silence fell between them. 

The rain came down with a soft but steady patter 
on roof and leaf. The tall clock in the hall ticked 
off the minutes solemnly or joyfully as the soul 
listened, but inexorably. The silence was full of 
speaking memories to the fair young mistress of the 
old house. 

What did the hour say to the man? He was 
lounging back in the depths of the large high-backed 
chair, his well-knit figure showing to the best advan- 
tage in his tight coat and riding boots. He looked 
young, younger than she had ever seen him. The 
weary, repressed look, suggestive of banked fires, 
had died out of his face ; and his eyes, softly 
smiling, rested on the old fireplace where, half 
buried in a bed of soft gray ashes, lay a burnt and 
blackened log of rough-barked wood. The lion- 
headed andirons at either end stood grimly defiant. 
This was all. What visions did he see there that 
set the stamp of what seemed absolute happiness on 
his strong countenance ? There was a soft, absorbed 
look on his face, and he appeared oblivious of the 
presence of anyone in the room, of time, or place. 
But when Margaret Steyne idly took the old ring 
from its case and would have slipped it on her finger, 
he saw and spoke : 

“ I would not put it on,” he said. ” I have a feel- 


158 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


ing against your doing it.” She looked up at him 
inquiringly. “ Pardon me speaking so, but I would 
not wear a ring like that until I knew its history or 
something of the associations which surrounded it. 
I hope that you will learn about it some time, and 
that it has been worn by a happy person.” 

“ I thank you for speaking. I was putting it on 
almost without knowing that I was doing so. It is 
an odd-looking ring, ” she said, turning it about in her 
hand. “ It is marked inside, but so faintly that I can- 
not make it out. Who knows ? It may be a talis- 
man, or possibly it possesses occult powers,” she said 
lightly. “ There ! go back to the quiet nook where 
you have lain hidden so long. We have had enough 
of mystery for one day ; ” and cannily handling the 
ring she dropped it back into its case. Then she 
closed the case and placed it in the bottom of the 
box, and with one more look at the sweet face in the 
locket put them together, and laid the papers on top. 

The old sentinel of time in the hall struck the hour 
that had passed so swiftly. 

“ I will go to see if Eebecca is awake,” Margaret 
said, rising. 

When she had gone, Thorne left his seat in front 
of the fireplace and began walking slowly back and 
forth across the floor in an absorbed manner. He 
was dreaming, had been dreaming, he told himself. 
He must pull himself together ; but he made no 
effort of will to shake off the spell which was upon 
him. 

“ It is a sin to be weak, remember.” He repeated 
the words of Henry Steyne’s letter slowly and audi- 
bly, but they had no effect upon him. “ It is a sin 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. " 159 

to be weak.” They came as words spoken by some 
far-off voice ; they were vague and meaningless to 
him. They were not meant for him, not to-day. 
These few short hours were his. He took out his 
watch and laid it in the palm of his hand and stood 
looking down at it. They were passing swiftly. 
Well, let them go ; they were giving him an eter- 
nity of happiness. He asked no more. 

There was a sound at the window, a soft rushing 
sound as of a branch brushed against the glass. He 
went over to it. A young swallow, storm-beaten 
and exhausted, lay on the stone sill in the rain. He 
opened the window and took it in. It did not flut- 
ter nor shrink from his hand. It had reached the 
point where it could resist no more, no more cry out, 
as the human soul when beaten and bruised sore by 
the waves of adversity comes to bear in silence, and 
make no moan. 

Its breath came in little pants of weariness, as it 
lay. While he stood looking at it, wondering what 
had brought it there, Margaret entered the room 
and joined him at the window. 

“ Where did it come from ? ” she asked. “ Oh, I 
see ; it was out in the rain.” 

“ Yes, it came to the window almost as you left 
the room.” 

“Poor, tired little wanderer ! ” she said compas- 
sionately. “ Shall I take it out to Hagar ? ” 

“No, it will gain strength faster as it is; the 
electricity from my body will revive it.” He had 
taken it up and laid it in the palm of his hand, and 
was looking at it and speaking in a dreamy, absorbed 
way. 


160 


A ROMANCE OF TIIE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“It was weak ; it should not have braved the 
storm, but it did, and fell by the way, and the piti- 
less rain was beating out its life.” 

“ I can but wonder why it left the safe shelter of 
its home, to wander out in the storm,” said Mar- 
garet. 

“ Some imagined necessity, I fancy,” Thorne an- 
swered. “ Or some irresistible impulse governed it, 
as we are governed and led for the moment, even 
the strongest of us, to do that which we know may 
be our peril.” 

“ It has had a bitter lesson,” she said. 

“ It has had its opportunity, but it may not learn 
its lesson. We often miss it. But it was weak and 
must suffer for it. It is nature’s law for man and 
brute.” 

He said it without any bitterness, and placing the 
bird gently down on the window-sill again, they left 
it there and went upstairs to Miss Price. 

Nothing brings a man back from the plane of 
ideality and dream-life to the sternly real, and 
steadies his pulses like the details of business. 
When Thompson Thorne sat down at the table in 
Miss Price’s room he was the self-contained business 
man to the tips of his fingers, with every faculty 
alert as he went carefully over the papers contained 
in the brass-bound box, pointing out and explaining 
to the ladies those which were important. 

A business life is a school in which a man learns 
concentration and self-control, and whatever else 
Thorne had not learned, he had learned to control 
himself. And a business life was not the only school 
in which he had been disciplined, in which he was 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


161 


yet in the bitterness of fate conning his lesson day 
by day, hour by hour. 

When they had gone downstairs they stood by 
the table in the library ; Margaret locked the empty 
box, and asked him to place it back on the mantel. 
She liked to see it there, she said, and it would never 
again deceive or mock her, for she knew it was 
empty. 

“Like some men’s lives,” he had said quietly, as 
he took her hand at parting. 

To the occupants of Steyne House life would go 
on as before. What of the man who rode away ? 
Would life go on for him as it had in the past ? 

He thought it all out as he rode down through 
the rain. Three hours of such happiness had never 
before come into his life and might never come 
again. He had yielded his heart to the passion of 
love, had turned his face from the bitter pain and 
disappointment of life, and for that brief eternity 
had looked into the dear eyes, listened to the sweet 
voice of the woman he knew that he loved with every 
impulse of his being ; a love that thrilled and swayed 
him as no other passion had ever done. 

And she did not dream that he loved her, he who 
had no right to love her, for whom it was a sin. He 
had been weak. “ It is a sin to be weak, remember, ” 
he murmured. Then, fiercely exultant, he hugged 
his joy to his heart. He had sinned, and he would 
remember, aye, to the hour of his death. No sorrow, 
no pain or suffering could take from him the memory 
of those hours. Come what might, that was his. 
He would not repent, he could not. He loved this 
sweet, pure-hearted woman through no will of his 


162 


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own ; it had come upon him in the first hours of 
their meeting ; come as a hurricane sweeps over the 
wide plain, without warning or premonition, and 
with such strength that, strong man though he was, 
he had been swept along unresistingly. He could 
not reason against it ; he seemed without volition 
in the matter. A new power had come into his life. 
He was face to face with a force he had never felt 
before, a force that must be controlled. 

The words at last had pierced the ecstasy of wild 
joy which had filled him. Back rolled the waters 
of bitterness and remorse to beat upon his heart. 

“ Dear God !” he moaned, and his face blanched. 

That night as the train sped northward through 
the darkness, Thorne sat through the long, bitter 
hours immovable, in the shadow and loneliness of 
the forward end of the car. His hat was drawn 
low over his eyes. It was a bad night, and there 
were but few passengers in the car. He might have 
chosen a more comfortable seat had he wished, but 
he sat where he did because it was farthest away 
from the other passengers. Human companionship 
was the one thing he felt he could not endure. The 
rebellious, beating heart throbbed in fierce sympathy 
with the rush and roar of the train, the darkness 
and storm without.. It fitted the wild misery in his 
heart. The lamps blinked dimly as though unde- 
cided whether to die out or to continue to shine on 
in their uncertain way. The colored porter of the 
Pullman car had recognized him when he came 
aboard, and when after some time had passed he 
did not come into his car, as was his custom, came 
and spoke to him, but was sent away. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


163 


“ I want no other comfort than I have,” he said, 
shortly. 

“ You are not ill, are you, sir?” the man asked 
with kindly insistence, as he had a glimpse of 
Thorne’s face. The sympathy in the man’s voice 
touched him, and awakening to a sense of what he 
was doing, he looked up. 

“ No, I am all right,” he replied in his usual kindly 
tones. It was just the touch of humanity that he 
needed ; it was a man’s sympathy, and it did him 
good, no matter how lowly the heart offering it, for 
he was having it out with himself, as he said. 

He realized now where he stood. He felt the sin 
of his mad love, his worse than mad yielding to it ; 
and when he faced about on himself he was not 
merciful to his weakness, and he had been cursedly, 
madly weak. It was too late, he told himself pit- 
eously, to make his life over or order it different 
from what it was. He had made shipwreck of hap- 
piness when he married, but he would not make 
shipwreck of his honor. 

Margaret Steyne did not dream of his love for her, 
could not, for in her presence his eye and voice had 
been sternly controlled. She had only that day 
trusted him, given him her sweet confidence, and 
did she know what she held in return ? Ah ! she 
never should know. She had trusted him. 

Thorne was not vain. He knew that she had 
trusted him and accepted his aid because circum- 
stances had placed him near her at the time when she 
needed help. It might have been another, if not 
he ; but it was he, and she should not suffer through 
his weakness, heaven helping him, he said rever- 


164 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


ently. And there he stayed himself. By some sub- 
tlety of reasoning he had brought himself into the 
relation of her protector against himself, and they 
were both safe. He would hold her sacred and 
watch over her from a distance. Her welfare 
should be dearer, far, than his own peace of mind. 
He would merit her confidence ; would be worthy 
of her respect, and his own. How hard it would be 
for him to keep to the line he had marked out to 
follow, only God and himself knew, and no one else 
should know. He said it with all the strength born 
of a solemn resolve. In this conflict mind should 
rule. Margaret Steyne might marry. Well, let 
her ; his care should not cease. She might need a 
friend some time. He would be ready. He remem- 
bered the vow he had made only that day. Such 
was the safety-line Thorne grappled fast ; such the 
obligation he assumed. Did ever knight set to him- 
self a harder task ? Would he ever regret it ? He 
said that he would not. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


165 


XIII. 

LAWYER HARRIS CONTEMPLATES A CHANGE. 

“ I fling my past behind me, like a robe 
Worn threadbare in the seams and out of date ; 

I have done with it.” 

On one of the main streets of the city of Rich- 
mond, close to the principal business centre, — only 
escaping it by being around the corner, — stands a 
semi-prosperous-looking building. The low-ceiled 
rooms, the small window-panes, and the numerous 
windows marked the fashion of architecture which 
flourished a half-century ago. The brick had grown 
dark with time ; the broad stone window-sills, too, 
had taken on the hue of age, and the wide stone 
steps were worn hollow in the middle by the cease- 
less tread of busy-moving feet. Young, active feet, 
old and feeble feet, timid feet, aggressive feet ; the 
feet of the Christian and of the scoffer ; honest feet 
and criminal ; black feet and white, lordly and slave, 
— all had pressed eagerly across these old stone steps, 
leaving their impress there. 

The prim old house had been built by Dr. John 
Bassett for a residence and an office. Then a room 
had been rented to a lawyer, for the doctor’s family 
was small. The years passed on, the doctor’s 
family became large, the demand for offices greater, 
and the doctor in a moment of inspiration moved 
his expanding family out, and let all the rooms for 


166 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


offices ; and to-day the old brick building, two stories 
in height and of good dimensions as buildings range 
in the old cities, stands strong and firm, answering 
the twofold purpose of supplying office rooms to 
numerous lawyers and doctors, and serving as a 
monument to the existence of Dr. John Bassett, 
being called the Bassett Building. 

Beneath one of the second -story windows of this 
building swings a smart sign on which you read 
J. C. Harris, Attorney, in large gilt letters, which 
are painfully straight-backed as they stalk across its 
surface. It is by far the most prosperous-looking 
sign of the many displayed on the building, for 
Lawyer Harris made a point of keeping his sign in 
good order. The young barristers in the building 
said that he renewed it with his flannels. 

Harris had occupied this same office many years. 
It was plainly furnished with good, strong walnut 
desk and chairs, all showing much usage. In the 
arrangement of the interior, indeed, there was none 
of the fastidiousness that characterized the personal 
appearance of the man, none of the scrupulous care 
that was bestowed upon the sign which flaunted 
itself so proudly before the eyes of the public. 

Harris had come to Richmond while he was still 
a young man. He had no friends in the city, and 
no one seemed to know anything of his previous 
life ; he came and settled quietly down to make a 
place for himself in the social and business world. 
For social life he cared next to nothing, but it was a 
means to an end — wealth and power. Steady and 
sure, was the motto he had inscribed on his heart 
in letters of fire. Now, after these twenty years 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


167 


he knew that he had accomplished what in the be- 
ginning he had vowed to accomplish ; that he had 
won the class of clients which he had set himself to 
win ; had climbed to the place in the business world 
which he had said he would reach, and had gained 
the wealth he had determined to gain. 

Was he satisfied ? He said that he was. But are 
we ever wholly satisfied ? Are we ever content ? 
No, not even after we have attained our ambitions. 
We realize that they are the ambitions of yester- 
day. They look tame and spiritless beside the vital, 
full-breathed, crowding ambitions and desires of the 
now ; and we are a little contemptuous toward 
ourselves that we should have striven after them, 
and wonder if we should again. 

To-day Lawyer Harris sat alone in his office. 
He had told the office boy who answered the door 
and ran errands for him to say that he was not at 
home to all inquirers. This day should be his. 
He meant to look the future in the face. The past 
was over and he had conquered, he told himself 
exultingly. He had beaten down all obstacles and 
come off victor, and by that struggle he had grown 
stronger and more confident. He felt that he was 
prepared to meet any phase of life that he might 
elect, to live any kind of life he might desire ; but 
we never care to live the same life over that we 
have once lived. 

Lawyer Harris felt the force of this as he had 
never felt it before, and he resolved with all his 
obstinate courage that the future should bring him 
something that the past had not. Some new and 
pleasant element must enter into his life from now 


168 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


on. What should it he ? That was what he was 
going to settle to-day. He was no believer in fate 
or chance, no believer in luck, good or had, such as 
is so blindly counted on by the great majority of 
people. It was but a chimera, a figment of the 
brain, he would say in argument ; it was to our own 
wills we owed our happiness or our unhappiness, 
our success or failure, our fame or our infamy. 

f‘ There is no chance, no destiny, no fate. 

Fortune smiles on those who work and wait.” 

Had he not proved the truth of this saying in his 
long struggle for success ? Had he not by his 
strength of mind and resolute will held men in sub- 
jection and made them serve his purpose, bent them 
to his desire as the smith bends the iron to what 
shape he desires ? He knew that he had, and a look 
of proud triumph crept into his cold gray eyes as he 
remembered pitilessly. 

He thought of the gentle-natured man whom he 
had, by the sheer force of his iron will, consigned 
to the lonely, loveless life of invalidism and seclu- 
sion, that no suspicion might attach to him ; for 
well he knew that Henry Steyne, truthful and 
honorable himself, would not aid his deception, but 
would speak the truth, if questioned. And he would 
be free ; free not only to put aside his own name 
and take another, but free to avail himself of the 
benefits of his generous friend's bounty while he 
studied law and prepared himself for the struggle 
he meant to make with the world. And to the 
advancement of his ambition he had sacrificed the 
happiness and usefulness of Henry Stej T ne. He 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 169 

thought of all this ; yet even now, with the grave 
of his friend between them, he did not regret his 
work. He told himself that Henry Steyne would 
never have lived a life of energy and usefulness ; 
that, had he been left to follow his own bent, he 
would have lived only in the past ; that he was just 
the dreamy sort of idealist that could live the life of 
a recluse, the life of a hermit even, and not suffer, 
but be content, maybe happy in it. And had not 
he, Harris, taken excellent care of his temporal 
interests ? — saved him all worry and trouble over 
them ? In truth, Henry Steyne was indebted to 
him for his financial prosperity and for the ease it 
secured him to the end of his life. But all this 
belonged to the past. 

“ Henry Steyne is out of my life,” he exclaimed 
with impatience. “ That chapter is closed forever.” 

But the death of the master of Steyne House had 
brought about a change. It had given to the old 
plantation a new owner and to Harris a new client, 
and this dient he meant to keep in his power, as 
he had kept the former one. He would continue to 
look after the business of the estate in the future, as 
he had looked after it in the past. He had always 
controlled it. In the beautiful old house and the 
restful indolence of its occupants he found an aroma 
of that sybaritic past when youth and light-lieart- 
edness had joined hands, running life’s race with 
laughter and gladness. Did he sever this tie he 
would lose one of the pleasantest things in life. 
Besides, no one else knew anything about the affairs 
of the Steyne estate, and no one else could know 
unless he willed it. He did not intend to let slip 


170 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


from him any of the good things which the past had 
brought him. The old plantation had afforded him 
a safe and sure refuge when he had been buffeted 
about and distracted by the criticisms of the world, 
and there had grown up in his heart a desire to 
possess it. He wanted to be able still to go there 
for rest, the rest there is in just getting away from 
people and events. The old plantation was a bit of 
the past that the heart had not been plucked out of. 

He had long believed that Henry Steyne was 
without heirs. Yet, when he knew there was but 
one, and that one an unmarried daughter of the 
oldest brother of Henry Steyne’s father, he was 
not discouraged. Doubtless she was but a timid, 
inexperienced spinster who would never dream of 
taking possession of the isolated old place ; he 
should be able to buy it at his own figure and 
on his own terms. The calm-eyed, self-possessed 
young woman whom he found in the heir, and 
who quietly persisted in coming into the old home- 
stead, was a factor in the circumstances not counted 
upon. But “all things come to him who waits” 
was a favorite quotation of the lawyer’s, and 
what might he not have in that future which 
he was to-day planning so painstakingly, so wisely, 
as he believed. There should he no haste, there 
should be no mistakes, he said confidently. 

Who so generously clothed as the egotist ? One 
ample garment depending protectingly from his 
shoulders covers deftly from the wearer’s vision 
each defect of his misshapen body, and all unknow- 
ing he hugs to his soul the belief that the repulsive 
deformity is perfect loveliness. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


171 


The thought of marriage came to Lawyer Harris 
that day. Marriage had been in his busy life an 
unconsidered factor, but now he did not drive the 
thought from him. Why should he not marry ? he 
questioned. There was nothing to hinder. He was 
amply able to support a wife. 

This train of thought, once set in motion, pushed 
boldly on into that prismatic future out of which 
he was to conjure whatever he might desire of 
luxurious happiness, of wealth, or fame ; that 
future about which he had no misgivings, and into 
which no disappointment nor suffering was being 
reckoned. 

Before he left his office that night he had said 
that he would marry, and it was Margaret Steyne 
who should be his wife. From that hour the sweet 
face of the gracious mistress of Steyne House pos- 
sessed for him new attractiveness ; to her surround- 
ings a new interest and importance were attached. 

It was early the next morning before breakfast, 
that he received the brief business letter from her. 
He thought it unnecessarily brief and uncommuni- 
cative. To say that he was disconcerted but mildly 
portrayed his state of mind. What was she thinking 
about ? he questioned. Why had she not told him 
where the money came from ? What business 
dealings could she be having with that firm about 
which she had not asked his advice ? 

She had not even left it to him to decide the place 
of deposit. She couldn’t be thinking of taking the 
management of such things into her own hands ? 
That idea he disposed of instantly, as being too 
preposterous ; she had only been imprudent and 


172 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


thoughtless. Still it was unsatisfactory, and he 
swore at the boy who blacked his boots, and kicked 
his landlady’s dog as he went out of the door, as a 
mild sedative to his disturbed feelings. 

Some one has said that everybody is insane one hour 
out of the twenty-four. We smile at the exaggera- 
tion, forgetting that it may be half a truth. If one 
will take the trouble to look below the surface he 
will find it is a settled law of nature that there 
comes to each of us — it may he at a different time — 
some hour in the twenty-four when our courage 
ebbs lowest ; a certain daily-recurring period when 
we feel less able to meet life’s discouragements and 
difficulties ; an hour when all our skeletons are 
prone to come out of their closets and rattle their 
bones at us, whether we will it or not. This condi- 
tion varies in intensity and definiteness according to 
temperament. The sympathetic and artistic, being 
most susceptible to all influences, respond most 
surely and faithfully to this law of nature and 
soonest discover its existence, but all are affected 
by it. 

Now, Lawyer Harris had always dark views of life 
on rising in the morning. Strong man though he 
was, he had not a grain of courage to begin the day 
with, but by the time he had eaten his breakfast 
and smoked a cigar he had pulled up to his normal 
condition. So it was the morning of which we 
write. His annoyance passed away in the fumes 
of his cigar, and he was ready to write a letter to 
Miss Steyne by the noon mail, and did so, but made 
the mistake of writing to her as he would to a man 
to whom he wished to be conciliating, and of whom 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


173 


he wished some information. He was not used to 
women, and had not the finesse to deal with them 
in business matters. He did not understand, nor 
could he conceive of the fine, unerring instinct by 
which they read between the lines. His was not 
an impressionable, receptive nature, and he did not 
accord it to others. 

We have seen how his letter was read and analyzed 
by Margaret and Miss Price. 


174 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


XIV. 

A NEW GUARDIAN. 

A fortnight had passed with the rapid flight of 
time since Mr. Thorne had made his last visit to 
Steyne House. 

Margaret Steyne was thinking of this, and of the 
letter she had received two or three days before 
telling her that he would be there by the tenth. 
He was bringing with him a gentleman to look at 
the land in that neighborhood, and he had written 
thus early, he stated, that she might have time to 
notify her lawyer, did she desire his presence. She 
left her seat on the veranda and went around to the 
kitchen door where Hagar sat under the grapevine 
which shaded the doorway with an almost impene- 
trable canopy of emerald-green leaves. The black 
woman, in her bright red-and-yellow turban, was 
making all unconsciously a picturesque bit of color 
against the somber background of the old house. 
She rose and stood until her mistress had accepted 
the comfortable split-bottomed rocking-chair, and 
bidden her resume her seat on the bench. 

“I came to tell you, Hagar,” her mistress said, 
“ that we are to have company to-morrow who will 
stay to dinner or luncheon ; but I want you to make 
it a dinner. ” 

“ Massa Ha’is ? ” said Hagar interrogatively. 

“Yes, Mr. Harris will be here, and two other 


A ROMANCE OF TIIE NEW VIRGINIA. 


175 


gentlemen also — Mr. Thorne and a friend of his. 
They are coming on business, and it may detain 
them some time. Did you ever think, Hagar,” she 
went on presently, “ that Mr. Harris was not 
always as kind to your master as he might have 
been ? Did you think that your master was always 
glad to see him when he came to visit him ? ” 

Hagar laid her knitting down on the bench beside 
her, that she might give her undivided attention to 
the questions her mistress asked. 

“Wall now, I’s had my doubts ’bout dat, ’deed I 
has ; an’ menny de times I ses to Gabo dat Massa 
Henry alius is moah pea’t like an’ chippersome when 
dat lawyah doan’ cum heah for a right sma’t 
spell.” 

‘ ‘ What did Gabe think ? ” 

“ Why, Gabe he neveh don’ see noffin’ ’tall ; he 
say I dun got a maggit in my head : ‘ Whaffo massa 
hab him cum heah ef he doan’ want him to come,’ 
he says ; an I dunno what to say den.” 

“Was Gabe fond of his master ? ” 

“ Lawd, missy, what fer ye ask dat ? ” exclaimed 
old Hagar, rousing up with the feeling that Gabe’s 
reputation for loyalty was at stake. 

“ I meant to ask if he would be likely to notice 
particularly about the effect that Mr. Harris’s visits 
had on his master,” her mistress hastened to ex- 
plain. 

“Law, no, missus; dat' am de tr’ubble. Gabe 
means right an’ ’ll do right, shuah, ef he on’y knows,” 
Hagar declared loyally; “but he ain’t cute,” she 
added somewhat sarcastically, as a sense of Gabe’s 
deficient perceptive faculties seemed borne in upon 


176 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


her mind. “ He alius hab to turnroun’ an’ step on 
hissef befo’ he knows he’s dar.” 

Margaret highly enjoyed the old woman’s humor- 
ous analysis of her partner’s character, which, odd 
as it was, enabled her to gather enough to confirm 
her belief in Gabe’s unsuspicious, trusting nature. 

Miss Steyne rose and went to the poultry-yard, 
where Gabriel was at work mending the fence 
which Miss Price had him put up, as he said, “ to 
pe’teckt her chick’ns frum the gaud’n.” 

The old man was almost reverential in his manner 
toward his mistress, whose soft-spoken requests 
were more powerful and effective with him than 
any rough-handed command would have been. He 
now stood holding his straw hat in his hand, while 
she gave him some instructions that she wished 
him to observe the next day. They somewhat 
bewildered him, but he gathered that he was not 
to be too friendly with any of the gentlemen who 
were coming, and not to answer questions if he 
could avoid it. He promised that he would try his 
best. 

“ It is a matter of business,” she explained, “ and 
you will know some day, Gabriel, why I ask you 
to be careful.” 

“I doan’ need to know whaffor ; it’s ’nuf fer me 
dat ye want me to do hit.” 

“ I know that, Gabriel,” said his mistress kindly. 

With this she left him*and went slowly along the 
edge of the wood. The slant rays of golden sun- 
light filtering though the boughs of the trees put 
shimmering glints into the brown hair, and cast a 
bright radiance over the soft white gown trailing 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


177 


on the fragrant grass. The fair face was thought- 
ful, and the small white hands crossed and recrossed 
themselves restlessly. Fine, expressive, shapely 
hands they were, for no hard labor had ever rough- 
ened and misshaped them. Margaret Steyne had 
all her life performed that higher labor, the labor 
which exacts a tribute from mind and brain ; and 
faithful, tried servitors had they been to her, for 
they had given her food, shelter, and raiment, and 
more than these, a life replete with intelligent com- 
panionship. But she was not thinking of what her 
life had been, nor of what it had brought her, as 
she walked alone on the quiet hill, but of the busi- 
ness the details of which were to come before her 
to-morrow ; for she had all a womanly woman’s 
shrinking repugnance from business, and in her 
dread would have been tempted to defer a consider- 
ation of the matter but that she realized its im- 
portance. 

On the branch of a tree a blue-jay sat screaming 
the senseless, rasping scream which sets our teeth 
on edge. Little Axem, filled with the strange le- 
gends and beliefs of her people as to the wickedness 
of that bird, shouting, flung a branch at it in deri- 
sion. 

“ Hi ! ye c’n screech an’ scol’ up dar to day, but 
to-morrer’s Friday, an’ ye’ll hev t’ go down t’ hell 
an tote wood t’ keep up de fiah. Dat’s what ye 
gits fer bein’ s’ mean ; an some day ye’ll neber git 
back. I ’spect dey’l bu’n ye up, fedders an’ all ; good 
’nuf fer ye, too,” concluded the amiable little savage. 

But the little savage, for all her impish, unac- 
countable ways, was a vigilant watchdog. Nothing 
12 


178 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA, 


within her range of vision escaped detection. She 
saw now, before her mistress saw, some one on the 
hill. The man had stopped and was looking back 
toward the valley, and stood outlined against the 
sky in profile. 

The slender figure in gray was familiar to her. 
It was Mr. Thorne, and as she looked he turned and 
came toward her. Facing the sun’s rays he had 
pulled the soft felt hat low over his eyes, and did 
not know that anyone besides himself was on the 
lonely hill until the dog which walked by his side 
warned him. He looked up and saw Margaret. 
But Tom Thorne was not afraid to meet her. He 
knew that he had his feelings wholly under his con- 
trol. He was master of himself now, as he had not 
been during the hours of that rainy afternoon. That 
small space of time was but a blissful fragment of 
life by itself, apart from the unhappy years that 
preceded it and the painful ones which must follow. 
He was decreed to love Margaret Steyne. He was 
conscious of that fatality in his heart, but he re- 
solved to conquer both destiny and himself. He 
had conquered, he told himself. He had come to 
where he asked only a calm endurance, and he 
meant to endure as a strong man should, silently, 
unfalteringly. 

Our lives are not measured by the hours or days 
we live, but by events and experiences, and meas- 
ured by these Thorne felt he had lived years since 
he last saw her. He found himself wondering if 
he could ever again count time as he had done in 
the past. 

Margaret stood quietly waiting for him. Never 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


179 


had she looked more beautiful to him than she did 
at this moment. The white gown she wore brought 
out the slim, willowy figure in all the strength of its 
faultless outline. 

He came up to her and shook hands in his usual 
courteous manner. 

“ This is an unexpected pleasure,” he said ; “ I 
fancied myself alone on the hill hut a moment ago.” 

“ I had not expected the pleasure of welcoming 
you back this evening,” she said cordially. “ We 
had not looked for you before to-morrow. But 
what a magnificent dog ! ” she exclaimed in the 
next breath, as her eyes rested in admiration on the 
immense hound which stood beside him. 

“ You admire him ? ” 

“Yes, I like him ; he is of a peculiar color, but 
he is an aristocrat. What is he ? ” 

“ He is a Great Dane hound,” Thorne replied ; 
“ and you could not pay him a higher compliment, 
nor a more just one, than to call him an aristocrat, 
for it is his birthright.” 

“ He looks it. Do you hunt deer with him ? ” 

“ No ; he is not a deerhound, and has never been 
trained to the chase. His training has been for a 
nobler purpose, to watch over and guard those he 
loves. He is from this time on going to take care 
of two ladies who live in a lonely, isolated place in 
Virginia.” 

Margaret did not yet understand of whom he was 
speaking. 

“ Come here, Rolfe ! ” he said. 

The big drab-coated fellow stepped obediently to 
his side. 


180 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ Come and get acquainted with the members of 
your new household. This is a new mistress,” he 
said, “ and you are to take care of her.” 

She impulsively reached out her soft white hand, 
and laid it on the dog’s head. The great fellow 
looked up with such a pleased look in his eyes that 
they were friends at once. 

“ But,” began Margaret expostulatingly, “ this 
is a valuable dog ; I have heard say they were, and 
that they are hard to obtain in this country. We 
could not accept a dog of this kind as we would 
one ” 

“ As you would one of no value,” Thorne inter- 
rupted. “ But you have already accepted him, and 
he will never leave you now unless I take him away. 
I promised Miss Price a dog. This one came into 
my possession as unexpectedly as fortunately. He 
belonged to the wife of a friend. She died a short 
time ago, and my friend, though he did not wish to 
part with the dog, was obliged to do so as he was 
going to travel and expected to be away for some 
time. That is how he came into my possession. He 
is a valuable dog because of his good qualities. He 
is just the kind of dog Miss Price would like, I 
thought, so I brought him down ; and I am glad you 
like him,” he said in a tone quite as though the 
matter were settled. 

‘ ‘ I had not thought of Rebecca’s wanting a 
dog — ” began Margaret, when he interrupted her by 
calling to the little black girl. 

“Come here, ” 

“ Axem is her name,” Margaret supplemented. 

‘ ‘ Come here, Axem, ” Thorne called to her. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


181 


The small maid marched up to them with great 
dignity of manner, and with face so demure and 
grave that it was all they could do not to laugh. 

“Here is a new dog. I want you to get ac- 
quainted. What do you think of him ?” 

The dog and the little darkey stood eying each 
other with about equal curiosity. The dog could 
have laid his muzzle on the top of her head with 
ease. 

“Ye’sbig an’ ugly, dat’s what ye is,” she said, 
speaking to the dog half defiantly ; but her mistress, 
who knew every expression of that weird face, knew 
that she was fairly wriggling with delight she would 
not show, for she dearly loved a dog. 

“There is not the least danger but Axem and 
Rolfe will get on all right,” said Miss Steyne. 

They turned toward the house, walking slowly as 
they talked. Axem, with the dog, had gotten a short 
way ahead, when they were surprised to see her 
challenge the great fellow to a race, by punching 
him in the ribs with her fist and telling him to “ Come 
on.” But what most amazed them was that the dog 
understood and accepted the challenge ; and away 
they went, the dog hounding delightedly round and 
round the nimble budget of waving woolly braids 
and fluttering skirts. 

“Really, Miss Steyne, your little savage is most 
amusing. I should rate her as unusually valuable 
on account of it.” 

“You have put a right valuation on Axem, Mr. 
Thorne. It requires a discriminating judgment to 
estimate her worth.” 

“ Axem : what kind of name is that ? I never 


182 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


heard it before, and I thought I had heard the list 
pretty well through. It isn’t negro, is it,? ” 

“ Well, I don’t know its origin,” said Miss Steyne. 
“ Her name, they told me, is Axem Crease. Now, 
what I think is that she was named from those small 
round boxes which you see piled up at the stores, 
with ( Axle-Grease ’ printed on them. The letters 
are in bright colors, and must have attracted the 
attention of her parents or some one, and she was 
called as near that as they could remember. Or 
possibly she named herself ; it would be like her to 
do it.” 

“ I can believe that,” said Thorne smiling. 

“I have not asked you if you had a pleasant and 
successful trip, as I should have done before,” said 
Margaret. 

“I have had a successful trip, as we count such 
things, with plenty of hard work and very little 
pleasure. I was able to be at home but very little, 
less than two days altogether. I cannot properly 
say home, for it never seems that to me. My wife 
lives at an hotel, as she is not fond of a quiet life. 
I am unavoidably away so much of the time it is 
not surprising that she prefers it ; she is happier 
there than she would be elsewhere.” 

It was the first time he had spoken of his wife 
to Margaret, and now he did not pursue the subject. 

“ Matters were in a snarl at that end of the road, 
owing to the loss of some papers through the mail,” 
he said, “ and it’s twice the work to straighten out a 
business after it gets into a tangle than it is to keep 
it straight in the first place. You received my 
letter ? ” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


183 


“ Yes, and I immediately wrote to Lawyer Harris. 55 

“ You have heard from him, I presume ? ” 

“ Yes, I had a letter this morning saying he would 
certainly be here to-morrow. I also asked him to 
bring down the papers connected with the estate, as 
I should like to know more about some of them.” 

“ Did you tell him anything about the finding of 
coal, or anything about what he was wanted for ? ” 

“ Not a word. I did not consider it any concern 
of his what he was wanted for.” 

“ Be careful, and do not antagonize him until you 
get all the information necessary, and secure posses- 
sion of your papers. This is a matter in which you 
will have to act alone, for, from all I learn of him, 
he would bitterly resent your acting on the advice 
of anyone but himself. You will need all your cool- 
ness and courage to effect an amicable settlement of 
your affairs with him. But when you are in a posi- 
tion to do so, take the management into your own 
hands. You can, I’m sure, if you will only try, and 
it is the best way, believe me.” 

. “ I have thought the matter over carefully, Mr. 
Thorne, and I realize that I must act alone ; that 
neither you nor anyone else can help me, however 
much you may wish to do so. I will be careful not 
to offend him until I get the papers into my posses- 
sion and can do without his aid.” 

“ I know that you will,” said Thorne assuringly. 

“ But you know I have had no training,” she said 
doubtfully ; “I know so little about business of any 
kind, and I shrink from it ; it’s a perfect bugbear 
to me.” 

“ Never mind ; keep up your courage. I will see 


184 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


that you start straight, and will help you any time 
you may need help, if you will only let me know,” 
he said. 

“You are generous, and with such encourage- 
ment I can do no less than try,” she returned hope- 
fully. 

“ Remember the instructions in your cousin’s 
letter,” said Thorne. “ He would not have said what 
he did without good reasons. With a reticent 
nature such as his, there must have been a strong 
impulse hack of saying anything so unpleasant.” 

“I think with you, that my cousin must have 
felt even more strongly than he wrote, and I will do 
my best to bring about a change.” 

“That is a promise, Miss Steyne. You’ve burned 
your ships.” 

“ There is no particular valor in that, for with 
you and Rebecca behind me, what might I not 
undertake ? ” she said cheerfully. 

“ Don’t overrate your reserve force,” he cau- 
tioned. “It’s bad policy ; it was so counted in the 
army.” 

“No danger of doing that. It is a combination 
that cannot be overestimated. You will map out 
the campaign, and Rebecca will see that I obey 
orders. When I feel irresolute or inclined to shirk 
I have only to look at her back. Did you ever 
notice Rebecca’s back ? ” she asked, with a smile. 

“ I don’t know that I have ; that is, not parti- 
cularly.” 

“ Well, do so,” said Margaret. “A commanding 
officer with that kind of a back couldn’t order 
a retreat ; his men would not believe he meant it. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


185 


That straight, resolute back preaches a sermon on 
duty and heroism such as no one can resist.’ 5 

“ There is no danger of a retreat in this case, 
then,” said Thorne ; and for the first time he laughed 
merrily. 

“Not in the least,” she declared. “Go on with 
your campaign ; I am hound to the car.” 

They came up to the gate, where Axem with the 
dog was waiting for them. Miss Price, looking 
out of the window, saw them, and when later 
Margaret came in alone, she asked what had become 
of Mr. Thorne. 

“Why, he went around to the back of the house 
to find Gabriel. He brought that dog he promised 
you ; and truly, Eebecca, you have reason to be 
proud, for he is one of the finest dogs I ever saw 
anywhere. You ought to go right out to see him 
and thank him for such a treasure.” 

Now, it didn’t seem just clear to Miss Price that 
anybody had promised her a dog, or that she had 
ever said anything about wanting one ; but she 
wisely said nothing, and went out to the hollow 
square in the center of the negro quarters, where 
Mr. Thorne was in consultation with Gabriel as 
to the best location for a kennel, with Axem and 
Hagar, who had joined the cavalcade as it passed 
the kitchen door, for auditors and critics. 

Miss Price had a warm welcome for her favorite, 
and when she saw the splendid dog she forgave him 
on the instant whatever duplicity she might suspect 
him of having practiced in her name. Why, she 
would sleep more soundly for just knowing that he 
was about, she asserted. 


186 A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 

“ I knew you would like him/’ said Thorne. 
“ He has been well trained as a watch-dog ; and 
while he is affectionate, you need not fear that any- 
one will enter the house or molest anything when 
you are absent.” 

“ Now, thet is a dawg ! ” exclaimed Hagar with 
high approval in her tones. “ He’s pow’ful big, ’n 
putty too ; none ob yer li’l fis’es what go’s yappin’ 
roun’ at noff’n’.” 

“ Umpli ! ” muttered Axem antagonistically. 
“ Jes de colo’ ob an old stock’n, an’ sicli a name ! 
Why doan’ ye call ’im Tige, or sumpin’ spect’ble- 
like, fer folks’s dawg ? ” 

“ Yes, ye lubly sherub,” exclaimed Hagar, turn- 
ing wrathfully on the little tormentor; “ we’s all 
saw you’ns dawg. Ye’ll die sum day an’ go ter 
twament jes’ cos ye’s so mean.” 

But Axem, perfectly happy in having aroused the 
old woman’s wrath, strolled off to another part of 
the yard, and Hagar, turning to Thorne full of 
indignation, exclaimed : 

“ Hab somebody done tol’ ye what dat lam’ ob 
Satan done jes’ las’ week ? Hab somebody done 
tole ye ? ” 

“ Something unusually wicked ?” asked Thorne, 
amused as much at the old woman’s wrath as at 
the mosquito-like attack of the little black maid. 

“Me’cy, me’cy, I sesso. One day she heah Gabe 
say, ‘ Pity dat missus didn’t brung a dawg erlong 
when she cum,’ and de next day we miss her an’ 
d’no whar she wuz. Aftah while she cum in ti’ed, 
an’ say she done fall asleep in de bawn. I s’pected 
she wuz tellin’ a whopper. De nex’ mawnin’ aftah 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGIN TA. 


187 


brexfus’ she cum in de house, an’ walk up t’ de 
missus berry top-lofty-like. ‘ Cum out an’ see yer 
dawg,’ she sez. Missus looked s’prised like, but 
got up an’ went out long wif her to de fardest one 
ob de cab’ns, and dar, tied wif a string, wuz de 
meanes’ low-down lil’ yaller dawg yer eber set eyes 
on to. An dat wuzn’t all ; dar in a conah, in a kin’ 
ob nes’, wuz ’bout a dozen puppies, an bein’ mos’ly 
spotted dey looks lak dar's mo’ dan fo’ty ob em, 
dey suttenly did. Golly ! wasn’t missus ’prised, an 
didn’t she laugh ? Den she say dat Missis Becky 
had great min’ fer ’margencies, and she leabs it wif 
her an Gabe, and she went in de house. Missy 
Becky she done laugh out loud. Dey did look 
funny ; jes’ a mess ob tails and whines.” 

“ And how did Gabriel take it ? ” Thorne asked. 

“ Gabe ? My, oh my ! I done fink he lose all 
his piety, he wuz so mad. He say she done it jes’ 
fer debil.” 

Miss Price laughed in sympathy with Thorne’s 
hearty laugh, which proved so infectious that old 
Hagar forgot her anger, and with her fat sides 
shaking trotted off to the house in search of scraps 
of meat for the new dog. Gabriel came from the 
barn with an armful of straw, and having seen that 
Rolfe’s kennel was made comfortable, they returned 
to the house. 

“ A dog was just what we needed, and we didn’t 
know it,” declared Miss Price. 

“ What do you suppose is the matter with Gabe, 
Miss Steyne ? ” Thorne asked a little later. “ He 
was not at all like himself this evening.” 

“ Not like himself ? How so ? ” 


188 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ Well he was — he appeared rather unfriendly, I 
thought ; not as I ever saw him before. I almost 
felt that I had somehow fallen out of the old fellow’s 
good graces.” 

Then, to her confusion, it flashed over Margaret 
that Gabe was trying to carry out faithfully the 
instructions he had received. But how was she to 
excuse to her guest the behavior of her old servant ? 
She had not meant him to take her instruction so 
literally, but how was he to know ? So, with the 
best grace she could command, she said cheerfully : 

“ Why, even Gabe has moods. Would you think 
it ? When he is not feeling well he does not take 
it like other folk and moan and complain ; he only 
grows solemn. Perhaps his rheumatism is trou- 
bling him,” she said, feeling like the hypocrite she 
was, for while she had only exaggerated a pecul- 
iarity of the old man’s, yet exaggeration did not 
come easy to her. 

“ Gabriel with moods ! ” laughed Thorne. “ Well, 
I am always having my theories overturned. I had 
fancied his nature too simple to be within the possi- 
bility of moods.” 

Margaret was glad that Miss Price entered the 
room at this moment, thereby preventing further 
conversation on the subject. 

“ When did you return to Walsingham, Mr. 
Thorne ? ” Miss Price asked. 

“ We came by the morning train ; Mr. Morgan, 
the gentleman of whom I wrote, is with me. He 
wanted to take a day to look at the land in the 
neighborhood. If matters turn out as he expects 
he thinks of buying land and settling his family 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


189 


here. ” Turning to Miss Steyne he said : ‘ ‘ He has 

given me an offer for a hundred acres of your land, 
Miss Steyne, and I came up to submit his proposi- 
tion to you, as well as two others from our company, 
for your coal ; in fact, to close the affair if you accept 
our proposals. I have them written out with con- 
tracts attached.” 

“Do you think we may look for opposition from 
my lawyer ? ” 

“I think that we may expect almost anything,” 
said Thorne. 

An hour later a decision had been arrived at, and 
Thorne had taken his leave. After the morrow’s 
business was completed he meant that his visits 
should cease entirely, if that were possible. He 
would not make life harder for himself than he 
could help ; it was hard enough now. 


190 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


XV. 

A MAN OF BUSINESS AND A WOMAN. 

It was early in the forenoon when Lawyer Harris 
presented himself at Steyne House. He looked 
unusually well in a fresh suit of light tweed, the 
modest white necktie, with the white carnation in 
his buttonhole, serving to tone down his somewhat 
florid face and to impart to his person an air of quiet 
elegance. 

This was the lawyer in a new light to Margaret ; 
and she was obliged to allow before the day was over 
that he was not only an attractive-looking man, but 
an agreeable one when he willed to be. Though 
there was a feeling of antagonism toward him, she 
had allowed him to find her welcome a degree more 
friendly and her manner a trifle more suave than it 
had been before. 

From the increased friendliness of Miss Steyne’s 
manner, the lawyer’s heart was filled with the most 
sanguine hopes for the success of his plan for the 
future. His vanity had been ministered to in her 
reception of him, and he was in a very gracious 
mood — as Margaret had meant he should be — when 
she began to unfold her business plans. And her 
skill in the management of the matter, as Miss Price 
afterward told it to Thorne, would have done credit 
to an ambassador of state. 

“ You see, Margaret told him first of the sale of 


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191 


the strip of land to the railroad company, taking 
care to impress upon his notice that it was a case 
where it was necessary that she should decide at 
once. Then, when she had sent the check she had 
not explained because it was so small a matter, and 
she was in hopes of seeing him before long, and could 
do so in person more satisfactorily. Now she would 
like to know if she had done right. 

“ ‘ I must say,’ he replied, and approval shone 
out all over his face, ‘ that you have shown excel- 
lent judgment in the matter, MissSteyne, excellent 
indeed.’ 

“ It was like a play I once saw,” said Miss Price, 
“ the only one I ever did see, but I thought of it 
right off. 

“ Then Margaret, in that quiet way of hers, told 
him how the survey corps had discovered the coal, 
and had sent an expert to examine it, who had pro- 
nounced it of good value for mining. And now 
they had sent her a proposition to buy or lease the 
coal, and she had asked him to come up that she 
might consult with him, as she felt she could do 
nothing further without his advice. 

“ I could see by the glint in Margaret’s eye that 
it went dreadfully against the grain for her to say 
these things to him, but she would go through with 
it when it seemed expedient for her to do it. 

“ 6 Well, well ! this is important,’ Harris ex- 
claimed. ‘ I am glad indeed that you were so far- 
sighted, so thoughtful, as to send for me ; ’ and he 
rubbed his hands together and patted his knee lov- 
ingly, as pleased as a little darky boy with a bag 
of glass marbles. 


192 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ Now, that lawyer isn’t slow by any means,” 
declared Miss Price. “ He is a shrewd business man 
with good judgment, but he has such a good opin- 
ion of himself, and is so easily flattered, that the 
moment his mind is turned on himself he is warped 
and loses his balance. I know a number of men, it 
is surprising how many, who are strong in every 
other way, but who in that one particular thing are 
weak as the weakest woman. It is easier to flatter 
a man than a woman.” 

“ Are you not a little hard on us?” queried 
Thorne. 

“ No,” answered Miss Price, looking seriously 
over her silver-bowed spectacles at him. “ Why 
should I be hard on anybody ? We all have our 
failings.” 

“ But surely men and women arealike in — in that 
particular weakness. They must be, you know. 
Human nature is the same,” he insisted. 

“ No, men’s natures and women’s natures are not 
near so much alike as we are all the time thinking 
they are. Now, when we find that out, and stop 
judging each other by ourselves, there will be less 
unhappiness in the world. But I was telling you 
about their conversation. Where was I ? Well, 
he congratulated her with much heartiness on her 
good fortune, smiling that double-meaning smile of 
his which I abominate,” added Miss Price energeti- 
cally as she took off her glasses and turned them 
the other side up. 

“ ‘ You say that they sent you a proposition ; 
whom did they send it by ? ’ Harris asked. 

“ 6 It is in writing,’ Margaret said, not replying 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


193 


directly to his question. ‘ In fact, there are two of 
them. I have them here.’ 

“ She went over to the secretary and unlocked it. 
Then she stopped and said, as she looked at the box 
above the fireplace : 

“ ' I wonder what my cousin ever kept in that 
box, there on the mantel. And is it not strange 
that I have never found the key to it ? ’ she asked, 
giving him one of those straight looks of hers. 

“ ‘ Why, yes,’ he said, without the blink of a 
change in his face, £ it is a little strange that you 
did not find the key somewhere in the secretary. 
And you did not V 

“ ‘ No,’ she said, shortly ; and turning to the 
secretary she fetched the papers and gave them to 
him. He reached into his waistcoat pocket for his 
spectacles and had them pretty near out, when I 
suppose he thought he didn’t want to be seen using 
them, and shot them back into his pocket. I knew 
then that he was courting Margaret, or had it in his 
mind to do it, and I just made my mind up, right 
then and there, that if there was to come a time or 
place where I could take a hand in that business I 
should give my whole mind to it.” 

“ I shall not fear the result if you do,” laughed 
Thorne. “ The blood of our revolutionary ances- 
tors forever ! ” 

“ 1 don’t know,” continued Miss Price, “ whether 
or not he could see real well without his spectacles, 
but he was a good while looking over the papers, 
reading them backward and forward. At last he 
seemed satisfied and stopped reading. Margaret 
next asked him if he thought she should consider 
x 3 


194 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


the offer at present. Could she not hope to do better 
later on ? Then he soon convinced her that she could 
not, and that it was better to let them have it. Of 
the two propositions the second was the one to 
accept, the very one she had accepted the evening 
before. Margaret dared not look at me straight, 
but I knew by the look of her eyes that she had all 
she could do not to laugh. She told him that she was 
so glad that he was satisfied, for the gentlemen 
were to be here sometime to-day for their answer. 

“ I saw her look toward the window. I knew she 
was thinking that you might be here any minute, 
and she had not got hold of the papers which 
she had asked him to bring and was so anxious to 
get before the other business came up. I saw she 
was becoming worried, for she did not even know 
if he had brought them ; but no one else would 
have seen it. 

“ ‘ Did you think , 5 she at last says, as calm and 
pleasant-like as though she had not much interest in 
the matter, 4 when I asked you to bring all those 
papers that you were to have a tiresome day’s work 
before you ? 5 

“ ‘ Not at all, though I could not imagine what 
you wanted with them ; 5 he said ; and I must ad- 
mit , 55 confessed Miss Price, “that he was very civil 
about it. 

“ ‘ Do you suppose that I am without curiosity V 
she asked, smiling a little. 4 I don’t even know 
how long the place has been in the possession of my 
ancestors, how they came by it, or whom they got 
it of. And I wanted my cousin’s will to look at 
occasionally ; he seems always so far away from 


A ROMANCE OF TL1E NEW VIRGINIA. 


195 


me, almost a mythical person. I wish I might have 
known him, but as I did not, I asked you to bring 
down the papers that I could look them over in hopes 
that it might induce in me a feeling of reality of 
kinship with my people. I hope you did not think 
me troublesome ? ’ She looked down the road and 
saw you coming up the hill path. 

“ ‘ No, no,’ said he; and with that he brought 
out a lot of papers from his breast-pocket and laid 
them on the table, slowly spreading them out be- 
fore her. 

‘ ‘ ‘ These are the railroad securities ; this is hank- 
stock which you hold in the Second National Bank 
of New York.’ 

“ ‘ Is that a good investment ?’ she asked. 

“ ‘ Couldn’t he better,’ he replied. ‘ I made that 
investment for Henry before the war, and the 
stock has doubled in value.’ 

“ ‘ And this railroad stock, is that paying divi- 
dends ? ’ 

“ ‘ As good as gold : never missed a dividend, and 
pays semi-annually. Here are other papers, some 
of them of but minor importance.’ 

“ You were at the gate ; Margaret knew it, but 
went on quietly drawing the papers toward her, 
opening them out and mixing them up. Then we 
heard your voices and looking up she said, 

“ ‘ There are the gentlemen who were to come 
about the coal land, and as we shall have to post- 
pone our conversation for the present I will just 
place these papers here until they are gone, when 
we can resume ; ’ and gathering them in her hands 
she whisked them into the secretary, locked it, and 


196 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


was at the door meeting you with such a formal 
manner that it must have surprised you not a little. 
It was not at all like the pleasant, cordial welcome 
Lawyer Harris received, and he must have been 
mightily pleased. And — well, you know the rest. ” 
She ended abruptly. 

He did know the rest. It was a perfectly conven- 
tional welcome, such as would be given to entire 
strangers, that he and Mr. Morgan had received from 
Margaret Steyne. 

Mr. Morgan was a large man, rather coarse-look- 
ing, but with a good-natured, shrewd, used-to-the- 
work look about him, which begat confidence. This 
Miss Steyne observed as she acknowledged the intro- 
duction. She led the way to the library and intro- 
duced him to the lawyer, who chose to adopt a pat- 
ronizing manner, which the large man resented but 
was unable to defend himself from ; then to Miss 
Price, who at once set him at ease by giving him the 
largest chair in the room. 

Thorne, who had stopped in the hall to replace his 
hat on the deer-horns from which it had tumbled 
off, now walked into the room, and Margaret was 
saying, “ Mr. Harris, Mr. Thorne — ” then some- 
thing in the faces of the two men stopped her. At 
sight of Thorne Lawyer Harris turned livid, and an 
unmistakable look of fear shot from his eyes ; then 
as suddenly it was succeeded by one of fury. 

Thorne’s face at first showed pure surprise and 
incredulity, but it became coldly contemptuous and 
his voice no less so. 

“You!” he exclaimed, but so low that only 
Margaret and Harris himself heard the exclamation. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


197 


Yet the others instinctively felt the strained situation 
between the two men. 

It had been as the clash of steel weapons, sharp 
and instantaneous, for at a bound Thorne recov- 
ered himself, and with a cool nod to Harris walked 
across the room to speak to Miss Price, who had 
risen and was pushing the chairs about in different 
positions, in a vain endeavor to tide over the awk- 
ward situation, wondering within herself what it 
meant. Those two men had known each other be- 
fore ; it was plain they had not been friends, and 
were not likely to be. 

“ Eh !” thought Mr. Morgan, “ something’s up. 
Don’t like the old starched -up humbug, do you, boss ? 
I’d like to see you have it out, though, you two ; ” 
and he covertly looked the two men over. “ Two 
to one on our plucky manager ; he’d thrash the 
ground with him in no time.” And he fell to won- 
dering if there was the least possibility of any such 
good luck as a bout between the two ; of course, not 
here in the presence of the ladies, but if there should 
be a chance — 

Thorne had never been more astonished in his life 
than when he stepped into the room and stood face 
to face with Harris. The audacity of the man 
stunned while it maddened him. He knew now 
what Henry Steyne had endured, and no longer 
needed an explanation of his strange retirement 
from an active, useful life ; he had it before him. 
Here was the octopus that had fastened its suckers 
about the heart of its victim with a deathless ten- 
acity. “ The damned villain ! ” he muttered. 

While he was savage with himself that in the 


198 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


surprise of the moment he had lost his self-control, 
and thereby antagonized Harris and so jeopardized 
Miss Steyne’s interests, he realized that regret would 
not help the matter ; he must do the best he could 
for her. And now the business training of the man 
told ; it enabled him to think and to decide quickly. 
By the time he had shaken hands with Miss Price 
and found a seat, he had mapped out a plan of 
action. 

But to no one of that small company did the en- 
counter between the two men bring such dismay as 
it brought to Margaret. With these two men an- 
tagonistic, enemies maybe, what might she not ex- 
pect ? And there was no room for doubt as to the 
state of feeling between them. She had seen Harris 
quail under the look of contempt which Thorne had 
flashed upon him, and he was not one to ignore or 
forgive a thrust of that kind. He would hate with 
undying bitterness one by whom his moral nature 
was laid bare. Now he might baffle her altogether 
in the accomplishment of the purpose she had in 
view. At the thought something rose up within 
her which you might call the courage of desperation, 
a courage that would compel events. She was 
nerved to a keen watchfulness of the situation, and 
to the exercise of all the tact and discernment which 
her powers could command. 

She did not sit down, but went over to the table 
where the lawyer sat, and with an air of the most 
charming concern for his comfort, moved the table 
with his assistance nearer the centre of the room, 
“ where it was cooler and the light more favorable,” 
she said ; and by her unconscious manner she 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


199 


smoothed liis ruffled plumage, in some indefinable 
way leading him to believe that she had not seen or 
understood the little scene in which he had been an 
actor. Her womanly tact gave him back his self- 
respect, under which he quickly recovered his men- 
tal balance. 

“ Now, Mr. Morgan, if you please, you may draw 
your chair to the table here and I will open the win- 
dow just back of you there.” 

She passed close to Thorne’s chair as she spoke, 
giving him a pleading little look, which almost over- 
whelmed the already remorseful man. In the glance 
he flashed back, his expressive eyes spoke so plainly 
the encouragement his lips could not utter, that 
Margaret was reassured. 

“Allow me,” he said, in coldly courteous tones ; 
and he rose and opened the window for her.* 

“ If you will take that end of the settle, Mr. 
Thorne,” she said, indicating by a gesture the end 
next the lawyer, “ I think you will be more com- 
fortable. ” 

He had no sooner dropped into the seat than he 
saw that it was a clever move on her part, as it 
gave him a desirable position. He was now at right 
angles with the lawyer, where he could have an 
unobstructed view of his face without moving ; 
Lawyer Harris would have to turn half round when 
he looked at him with the light on his face, while 
Thorne’s back was to the window. 

Mr. Morgan proceeded to tell the lawyer of the 
proposition he had come to lay before Miss Steyne 
for the hundred acres. The usual talk as to terms 
and payments followed, and they had about reached 


200 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


an agreement when Mr. Morgan surprised the law- 
yer somewhat. 

“ Now/ 5 he said, a as I am only the tail to the 
kite, I guess we’ll have to wait a bit and see what 
my lady is going to do about the other part of the 
bargain ; ” and he laughed pleasedly at his own 
speech. 

“ Do you mean,” said Harris, “ that you do 
not want the land if the coal is not sold or leased to 
the company ? ” 

“ You’re about right ; that’s my business, open- 
ing up and superintending coal lands. I don’t want 
a home where I’ve no business. Life’s too short to 
make a fortune out of these Virginia hills, even if 
I knew how to do it. Now, my friend, what have 
you got to say about it ? ” he asked turning to Thorne 
and bringing him into the conversation, to which, 
up to this time, he had been but a listener. 

“ Do you mean about our company purchasing 
or handling this property ?” 

“ Yes, just that.” 

“ Well, I have nothing whatever to say. Miss 
Steyne has two propositions from our company. 
It is for her to say. I am here to receive her 
answer and close the contract if an arrangement is 
reached.” 

Here Miss Price, who had left the room a short 
time before, returned and announced dinner. 

“ It seems,” said Miss Steyne, “to be Hagar’s 
say just now, and I will defer mine until after 
dinner. ” 

“ Why, I told ’em down at the tavern that we’d 
be back for our dinner,” blurted out Morgan, to 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


201 


whom the idea of dining with strange ladies was 
almost too trying to be considered calmly. 

“ But you didn’t take into consideration how long 
it would take you to get up the hill, Morgan ; you 
were a full hour, weren’t you?” asked Thorne 
banteringly. 

“ Blast the hills ; there’s too many of ’em any way ; 
we’re always running up against ’em everything we 
do ; ” and the grumbler wound up with a j oily 
laugh. 

Lawyer Harris was asked by the mistress to sit 
at the head of the table, which quite accorded with 
his ideas as to the proper arrangement of the guests, 
and the distinction bestowed upon him induced in 
him a more social manner. He let go somewhat 
of his haughty bearing. Old Hagar, all unknow- 
ing, did much to assist her mistress in smoothing 
things out comfortably by the excellent dinner she 
set before her guests, for Hagar was one of the best 
of that class of old Virginia cooks whose virtues have 
been heralded to posterity through song and story. 

To the relief of all, the dinner was not a drag. 
Mr. Morgan forgot his timidity, and talked inces- 
santly until they returned to the library. Then Mar- 
garet took up the subject of business, and surprised 
Thorne, as well as the lawyer, by taking the bit 
in her teeth, and clearing with one bound all ditches 
and hurdles. As a turfman would say, she took 
her head and bolted. 

“ I have carefully examined both propositions 
from your company, Mr. Thorne, and prefer the 
second, which I have decided to accept.” 

The announcement was received by her hearers 


202 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA, 


with various emotions : by Thorne in silence, though 
he felt like giving a view halloa ; by Mr. Morgan 
with “ That’s something like business for a woman,” 
emphasizing his words with a resounding slap on 
his knee ; while the lawyer was so astonished that 
his jaw dropped with the surprise of it. He seemed 
for the moment not to know what to say. As Miss 
Price facetiously put it, “ He looked like a child 
who had let a bird get out of its hand.” 

But Lawyer Harris had found himself, and braced 
his energies for a resistance that would accord with 
his dignity and importance as Miss Steyne’s adviser. 

“ My dear Miss Steyne, you are rash. I do not 
consider the contract worded as it should be ; it 
is faulty and should be changed. Some of the 
clauses should be more explicit.” 

“ I thought you seemed entirely satisfied with it 
this morning when we went over it. You said that 
that was the one to accept,” said Margaret, looking 
at him with those straightforward brown eyes, which 
Thorne thought held as much dare in them as was 
safe for the owner to show. 

But here the fun of it was too much for Mr. Morgan, 
and he laughed uproariously with tears. Then 
they all laughed a little with him, and so came 
down easily. This, however, did not hinder Harris 
from contending and objecting, but as Miss Steyne 
had checkmated him by accepting the proposition, 
he could only squirm and quibble over the contract, 
which he did, asking to have unimportant changes 
made until they were weary almost to insurrection 
before the papers were finally signed and the business 
completed. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


203 


As soon as possible Tliorne, with Mr. Morgan, 
took his departure, saying that he must leave that 
evening for the upper end of the road. To Miss 
Price’s invitation to call when he was in the neigh- 
borhood, he said : 

“I thank you ; I should be most happy, but I 
have been absent so long I fear I shall find it 
necessary to remain there and place Morgan at 
this end of the line, as it is his intention to build 
and bring his family down. I can recommend him 
to you as an honorable business man ; you may rely 
upon him fully ; ” and with the conventional thanks 
for hospitality he bowed to Margaret, a bow which 
might include the lawyer or not, as he chose to 
accept it, as he stood talking to Miss Steyne. 

And so he left them as they stood ; the man 
exultant and rejoicing, the woman with a little 
chill feeling at her heart that he should leave in 
that way. She felt so helpless with all those papers 
there in the secretary, which he had urged her to 
get from the lawyer. But she knew that, more 
than all, the mystery of the morning was on her 
heart, and she was hoping and longing for some 
explanation of what had taken place. Would it 
ever come ? She wanted to be alone that she might 
think over the events of the day. How much 
longer must she bow to the yoke of this man’s 
presence ? She put her hands up to her eyes ; she 
felt that she could not endure much more. 

“Oh, how tired I am!” she exclaimed. “Do 
not let us talk another word of business to-day.” 

“Certainly not,” he replied, promptly. “You’ve 
had enough of business. I don’t wonder you are 


204 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA, 


tired ; you are not used to it, and it has been 
abominably hot to-day.” 

4 4 If you will excuse me, Mr. Harris, I will go up 
to my room for a short rest.” 

44 That’s what you should do,” he said quickly, 
4< and I will go out on the veranda to smoke.” 

It suited the purpose of Lawyer Harris to have 
time to think, time to get used to the new order of 
things. Miss Steyne was now a rich woman, richer 
than he had ever thought she would be, even with 
the best of management given to her estate. Was 
there such a thing as luck ? He had scoffed at the 
mention of the subject. But could there be such a 
thing as fate, a condition of things carved out for 
us which we have been powerless to alter, but which 
has governed and shaped our lives to some certain 
end ? He had all his life called it but the vaporings 
of silly fools, but the events of the day had startled 
him. 

44 Gad ! that was the worst scare I’ve had in many 
a day,” he muttered. 44 How the devil did Tom 
Thorne ever come to turn up here, and in that 
business too ? Why wasn’t he killed in the war, 
curse him ? Who would ever have thought of run- 
ning slap up against him here ? Lost all his money 
by the war, I suppose, and the money he married 
for, too. Well, I never believed he got any love 
with his wife, but I haven’t lost anything by wait- 
ing. ” 

A smile crept over the lawyer’s face which would 
have acted on Miss Price’s nerves like a galvanic 
battery had she seen it. 

44 No, I haven’t lost anything by waiting. I 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


205 


wouldn’t trade places with him to-day. Who has 
lost in the long run, Thompson Thorne ? What a 
chance it is that he is not a friend of the family, 
and that he is not likely to meet her again ! He 
might have spoken to-day and let out something ; 
but he was not meddlesome, I must say, and showed 
that he thought it none of his business ; and it isn’t 
by a long sight.” But Harris writhed as he thought 
of the coldly contemptuous manner of Thorne, and 
he had not dared to resent it. 

‘ ‘ I shall let no grass grow under my feet ; no 
chances taken here if I know it. This is a business 
of the utmost import ance, and I shall give my mind 
to it. I wonder where Gabe is ? ” 

The lawyer brought his feet down with decision 
from their comfortable position on the railing, went 
down the steps, and strolling round passed the 
kitchen door. He had all at once remembered that 
there were other people in the world. Possibly this 
girl whom he meant to marry had admirers, a lover 
even. The thought was disquieting, but it was 
timely. He could not question Miss Steyne, and 
Miss Price was impossible, the lawyer decided very 
promptly, as he thought of the quiet force of those 
shrewd gray eyes. But he must know, as far as 
he could, what he would have to meet in this new 
venture, and he set out to find Gabe. 

Yes, Harris was going to do just what Margaret 
had thought he might do— question her servants 
about her friends and those who visited her, or ask 
for any other information he might wish to obtain. 

The old man was not at the back of the house, and 
he went on to the barn. But Gabriel was not to be 


206 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


found, for, at Hagar’s suggestion, his mistress had 
set him to do some work at the other side of the 
wood, and Hagar had given him his dinner to carry 
with him. 

“Fer, ye see,” she said to him, “ de gentry’ll he 
a-boder’n roun’ jes’ at noontide, an’ ye might hab 
ter wait a spell ef ye cum in. I'll hah a good warm 
supper fer ye ; ye sha’n’t lose nothin’ by missin’ yer 
dinner.” 

And Gabe, secretly pleased, but stoutly asserting 
that he was not “one of dem az gloried in riotous 
libin’, an’ digged dar grabeswid der teef,” gathered 
up his tin pail and jogged off contentedly to pile 
brush at the back of the wood. 

By being out of the way the old man escaped a 
trying interview ; for, between the spirit of deference 
which had become habitual to him in the long years 
he had served Lawyer Harris as his master’s friend 
and guest, and his desire to obey faithfully the 
request of his mistress, he would have made a 
miserable failure. “ Made a mess ob it,” as Hagar 
said. 

That was why Harris did not see him when he 
looked for him. But he did see Axem, as she was 
playing out by the dog’s kennel. 

“Ah ! a new member added to the household, I 
suppose,” was his mental comment ; and he walked 
over to the old slave quarters. Now, what the 
lawyer did not see was Miss Price in her poultry 
yard, standing just back of the cabin which had 
been made the temporary quarters of the dog Bolfe. 

As Miss Price told it to Margaret a little while 
after, the lawyer came strutting up and stood look- 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


207 


ing at the child, his hands thrust in his pockets 
and the smoke of his cigar trailing over the shoulder 
in a lazy blue twist. 

“ ‘ Where did you come from ?’ he asked. 

“ She didn’t make any reply, only looked at him, 
the whites of her eyes showing just the least mite. 
She has a way of turning them so they twist a 
little, and she nearly always does it when she means 
mischief. I declare my heart was in my mouth, 
for I didn’t know what she would say, and it wa’n’t 
no ways certain whom she would worst. I kept 
still and waited ; I thought if he did ask questions 
it was best done then, and we would know what 
was said. 

“ ‘ Wliat’s your name ? ’ he again addressed her 
directly. 

“ ‘ Axem,’ she replied, having made up her mind 
to be accommodating in a small way. Then his 
eye fell on Rolfe in the doorway. 

“ ‘ Whose dog is that ? ’ 

“ ‘ Missy Pwice’s dawg.’ 

“‘Where did she get him?’ he asked, with a 
kind of suspicion in his voice. 

“ Now comes the genius of the child, for she 
spoke right up. 

“ ‘ From her sweethawt.’ 

“‘From her sweetheart,’ he said, wonderfully 
pleased apparently. ‘Who is her sweetheart, and 
where is he ? ’ 

“ ‘ Off whar she cum from, but he hain’t a-goin’ 
ter marry her ’tall,’ declared the little imp. 

“ ‘ Why isn’t he going to marry her ? ’ 

“ ‘ Oh, cos she jes’ fool long so, and wouldn’t say 


208 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


yes, an he got ti’ed wait’n’. She wuz gitt’n’ ole 
ennyhow, an’ so he jes’ went’n done mar’t t’other’n.’ 

“ ‘And he sent this one the dog,’ he said, laugh- 
ing one of those chuckles he is so fond of doing. 

“ ‘ Nawp,’ she replied with indifferent politeness, 
‘ he done git de chills an die, an she done sen’ a 
man an’ buyed ’im a spell ago.’” 

Margaret leaned her face on her hands against 
the jamb of the door, and a peal of silvery laughter 
rang through the old house. 

44 Now that young imp knew I was standing there 
and could hear every word she said, and she told 
that straight through without break or halt. I 
never admired her before, but I did then ; I like 
excellence, even in lying ; ” and Miss Price smiled 
in grim enjoyment of Axem’s performance. 

“ Oh, Axem, thou hast made much merit to-day, 
as our Buddhist brother reckons,” exclaimed her 
mistress. 

“That was not all, though it was the best piece 
of work she did. He asked her if she saw the two 
men here to day. She answered by a nod. 

“ ‘ Have they ever been here before ? ’ 

“ ‘Neber see de fat one befo’.’ 

“ 4 But the other? ’ he asked suspiciously. 

“ ‘ Once he fotch a paper to missy.’ 

“ There was a deep breath of relief from the 
lawyer, and a satisfied look on his face. I had 
slipped along by the cabin where I could see through 
a crack. He gave Axem some money and was 
turning away, but thought of something more. 

“‘Do the ladies have any sweethearts come to 
see them ? ’ 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


209 


“ ‘ Not af’r de perfess’r g’way,’ she said carelessly. 

‘ ‘ ' The professor ? Where was he from ? Tell 
me about it ; ’ and he looked anxious again. 

“ ' He had orful long legs,’ she asserted solemnly. 

“‘Is that all you know?’ pursued this high- 
minded gentleman. 

“ ‘ Guess dat’s why missy send he off, cos he legs 
so long. Gosh ! dat’s her callin’ me ; I has t’ go to 
de pos’ offis, ’n I done f’git.’ 

“ With that she darted away leaving him stand- 
ing there looking at the end of his cigar. It was 
getting a little awkward for me ; if he should go 
on past the cabin I stood a first-rate chance of being 
discovered, and I didn't want that ; but luck fav- 
ored me. He turned about and came back to the 
house. I skirted along back of the cabins and 
hurried in the front way to tell you. Now, every- 
thing is all right so far, and you have only to go 
down and be civil for a half-hour longer and you 
will be free,” comforted Miss Price. 

“How could it have happened ?” exclaimed Mar- 
garet. “What chance was it that Axem did not 
tell anything she ought not, nor that we did not 
want told ? Why did she deny seeing Mr. Thorne 
but once ? And about the dog ! She could not have 
understood anything about the matter.” 

“ She may have heard us talking, and caught a 
word that way,” suggested Miss Price. 

“I can’t think it possible. There is but one ex- 
planation ; she is shrewd and must have guessed 
his intention to draw her out, and she had her 
amusement. But it is perfectly marvelous how it 
all could have turned out so fortunately, though it 


210 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


does not matter so much now, since the business of 
to-day is closed and the papers are signed, and I 
have gotten possession of my other papers. Yet I 
would not have him know who advised me to the 
step, nor that I was advised by anyone,” said Mar- 
garet. “ I do not want to make him the enemy of 
anyone who befriends me.” 

“ I can’t understand it,” said Miss Price, thought- 
fully. 

“ Nor can I. I wish I could. But we must not 
stand here talking longer,” said Margaret. “ I am 
worried over what occurred to-day, and Mr. Thorne 
leaving so hurriedly and strangely, when I looked 
to him for help about my business. Isn’t it strange 
that he did not tell us that he knew Harris, when 
we have talked about him so often ? I am puzzled 
and annoyed ; ” and the straight brows were knit 
in thoughtfulness for a moment, then she turned 
and said : 

“ Rebecca, will you find Axem and send her to 
me ? And have you a letter or anything you wish 
to send to the post-office ? I am going to send her 
down to Walsingham for several reasons.. He must 
not know that I didn’t want to send Axem to the 
post-office, which was a pure fabrication on her 
part, to be sure, and I want to know whether or 
not Mr. Thorne and Mr. Morgan have gone from 
Walsingham. But most of all I want to know that 
Harris does go to Richmond by the evening train. 
I am going to trust Axem. There is no one 
else.” 

“I have no letter quite ready, but I have one 
begun to Sam Byres about the taxes on my house. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


211 


I will find Axem and send her to you ; then I will 
finish my letter ; ” and Miss Price departed alertly. 

Axem was promptly in the room. When she 
knew that she was to be sent to the post-office she 
was as happy, perhaps, as she had ever been in all 
her short life. She quickly understood what was 
wanted of her, and promised to “do it shuah.” 

“ You know the lawyer. You will not make a 
mistake ? ” questioned her mistress anxiously. 

“ ’Deed I does ; um walk dis way, like ole teckey 
gobl’r ; ” and the slim little black maid mimicked 
the walk of the pompous lawyer with comical pre- 
cision. “ I’d like t’ wun ’tween he’ns legs ’n fro’ 
’im down ; goodnuffer ’im ; ’im damn mean man.” 

“Why, Axem!” exclaimed her mistress, “you 
must not say such things.” 

“ Ye doan’ like ter hab me ? ” 

“No, I do not. You understand, now, that you 
are to take the letter which Miss Price gives you, 
and give it to Mr. Smith. Then wait until the 
train comes in ; give the bag to him, and if there 
are any letters he will put them in the bag. Do 
not take them out, but come right home to me. 
Will you do it ? ” 

“I cross my heart I do it, missy,” she declared, 
her eyes shining like black stars. 

When this form of vow has been used by a negro 
child, there is nothing more to be said, nothing can 
be said that is more solemn or binding. Why they 
believe that making the sign of a cross above the 
heart makes a promise deathless and sacred, I can- 
not say. I never heard any reason given, save 
that it did. Then again, her mistress would have 


212 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


been entirely secure in trusting Axem to carry 
anything safely, for a negro is peculiar in that he 
will safely convey anything that may he given him 
to deliver, or anything given into his care as a 
trust, no matter how great the temptation to him, 
nor how unhesitatingly he would have stolen the 
articles before. 

Margaret went down to the veranda and joined 
the lawyer, who by this time had returned to its 
sheltered coolness, having concluded his conversa- 
tion with Hagar at the kitchen door only when he 
felt satisfied there was nothing more that he could 
learn. Taking it altogether, he felt well pleased 
with everything, and at the end of a half hour, 
when he took his leave, he had not changed his 
mind, the papers left behind being ample excuse 
for another visit which he intended shortly to 
make. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


213 


XVI. 

A FLANK MOVEMENT. 

The sun had sunk behind the mountain, and the 
light was beginning to fade. Miss Steyne and Miss 
Price on the veranda waited anxiously the return 
of the girl, and while they looked down the path 
where it wound into sight round the hill, there 
came into view a little black speck, which they 
knew to be Axem. There was no delay, no loiter- 
ing, but stepping briskly along she was coming 
under full sail, with the blue jeans mail-bag flap- 
ping at her side. A few minutes more, and she 
had reached the goal, the veranda, and her mistress’s 
presence, and never jockey brought his colors under 
the wire a winner, with more real pride than did 
the little black maid deliver up her charge to her 
mistress. 

There were two letters, one for Miss Price and 
one for herself. Hers bore the postmark of a 
Northern city. She did not open it, it could wait ; 
it was not what she had hoped for, and she turned 
to her little messenger. 

“ Well, Axem, did you see Mr. Thorne and Mr. 
Morgan ? ” 

“ No, I neber seed ’em ; dey done left town two 
houahs ago on der hosses.” 

“ How did you find out ? ” 

“ I hearn Cy Smiff tell dat der lawyeh Ha’is.” 


214 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ Was he asking about them ? ” 

“ Yesum ; he ax if they done gone, and den he 
seem mighty pleased-lak, ’n’ go ’n’ get on de cayes 
an g’way to Wichmun’. ” 

“That will do ; you have done everything right, 
Axem. You have proved that you are to be trusted, 
and hereafter you may go once every week for the 
mail. Now go, and Hagar will give you some sup- 
per,” said her mistress kindly. 

When the two friends were alone they looked at 
each other. 

“I thought that Mr. Thorne might write, if only 
a few words,” said Margaret, speaking for the first 
time of what had been in her mind, “ since he went 
away as he did, and after what occurred this morn- 
ing ; but he has gone, it seems, and we are left with- 
out any explanation. It does look strange ; I wish 
I knew what it meant ; ” and there was not the 
courage in her voice that her friend was accustomed 
to hear. 

“ I wouldn’t bother about it, my dear girl ; you 
can trust him to make it all plain when we see him. 
There’s some good reason for it ; I am mighty sure 
of that,” declared Miss Rebecca with more than her 
usual positiveness. “ Besides, you are not doing 
right in thinking all about yourself. Don’t you 
suppose he is just as uneasy as you are ? For 
he don’t know whether you got your papers or not. 
Now, didn’t you ask him what to do, and didn’t he 
tell you, and promise to see that your business was 
set right for you ? Did he not promise that the day 
you both came up to my room and talked it over 
— the day you read your cousin’s letter ? ” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


215 


“Yes, Rebecca, he did.” 

“Well, he is a man that will keep his promise, 
never fear ; ” and Miss Price ceased talking, as 
though there was nothing more to be said on the 
subject. 

In the gathering dusk Axern had come round to 
the veranda with her inseparable companion, Rolfe. 
Margaret called him to her, and he came with long, 
joyous bounds, thrusting his head in her lap with 
an air of such perfect happiness that she was com- 
forted. Strangely enough, he persisted in making 
her his unmistakable favorite, in spite of all the 
petting lavished on him by others. It was only 
when she bade him go for his evening play that 
he joined Axem, and chased through the yard with 
her until, wearied, she dropped on the grass, refus- 
ing all his challenges to get up again. Suddenly 
he stood still, and raising his head seemed to 
listen intently. He stood so for several moments, 
with limbs rigid and ears pointing forward. Then 
with a bound he was over the stone wall, and was 
running swift as the wind down toward the bluffs. 

“ Rolfe, Rolfe, come back,” Margaret called ; but 
if her voice reached him he did not heed it, but 
bounded on till he was lost in the darkness. 

“ Oh, missus !” screamed Axem, “he done gone 
wun off ; ” and dropping down on the ground she 
sobbed and moaned aloud, rocking her body back 
and forth in uncontrollable grief, while Miss 
Rebecca was blaming herself for having loosed him 
at that time in the evening. 

“ I don’t believe he will leave us,” said Margaret. 
“ He is a stranger in the neighborhood, and would 


216 


A ROMANCE OF TIIE NEW VIRGINIA. 


not know where to go. I feel sure he will come 
back.” 

She went down the path to the gate, and stood 
looking off through the gloaming, in the direction 
he had disappeared. Was she going to lose this 
friend too ? The tears were very near the surface, 
when a sound, faint but regular, was borne to her 
ear on the still air. She inclined her head and 
listened ; then she heard plainly the hoof-beats of 
a horse. Nearer and nearer they came, in a long 
swinging gallop, until she could discern a horseman 
coming out of the darkness, and a dog wild with 
delight was running now in wide circles, now 
pressing close to the side of the horse. Yes, it was 
Rolfe, for he had left the horseman and was bound- 
ing toward her. A great wave of thankfulness 
swept into her heart at the discovery. But who 
was the horseman ? Could it be Mr. Thorne ? 

She stepped through the gate, and in a moment 
more he had drawn rein beside her and swung him- 
self off his horse. 

“ Good-evening,” he said cordially, coming up to 
her. 

She gave him her hand, while she was saying a 
little nervously, but in tones of genuine relief and 
gladness, “ It is you. It was you that Rolfe went 
to meet, and we thought he was running away.” 

“ He would not desert you long, even for me,” 
he said. 

He did not hold Margaret’s hand a moment 
too long, but every impulse of his being reached 
out toward her. 

u How could Rolfe know von so far off? ’’she 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


217 


asked. “ And how did you get here ? We thought 
you had gone, and — ” 

“ And you were awfully doubting,” he said, 
laughing lightly, which was the last thing he felt 
like doing ; but it helped her to gain her com- 
posure. He had heard the little strained catch in her 
voice, and knew that the tears had not been far off. 

“ I did not doubt you ; don’t think that. I was 
only worried because — because there did not seem 
to be any way — ” 

“I know; there didn’t seem to be any way for 
me to keep my promise to you,” he said cheerfully. 

“ Yes, that was it.” 

“Did you not know that I would make a way, 
and that if I showed a careless indifference when I 
left, it was because I could best serve you by feign- 
ing disinterestedness in your affairs ? ” But despite 
the bravery of his words, there was to Margaret 
a sound of sadness, of discouragement, in his voice. 

“I know now,” she answered penitently, “that 
you have put it forever out of my power to doubt 
your sincerity or ability to keep a promise. And I 
never will again,” she added earnestly. 

“ Will you promise me just that ? ” 

“Yes, I promise. I ought, you know,” she said 
conscientiously. 

“That will do. I know you will not forget;” 
and there was a lighter-hearted sound in his voice. 

“ Shall I cross my heart?” and she laughed her 
soft joyous laugh. She was herself again. 

Gabriel came to walk the horse about, for he was 
warm ; and Thorne and Margaret went to where 
Miss Price waited for them on the veranda. 


'218 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


“ I am glad to see you, Mr. Thorne,” she said, 
coming forward and offering her hand — “ glad you 
came back.” 

“ Yes ? ” Thorne always said it with a slight 
lengthening of the word, and the faintest rising in- 
flection on the last letter which made it seem half 
an answer, half a query. “I came back on pur- 
pose to restore your faith in mankind, Miss Price ; 
I couldn’t bear the thought of your defection,” he 
said smiling. 

“ I haven’t lost my faith in mankind, nor in you 
either,” she replied. 

“I have heard of faith mountain high,” he said, 
“ and if there is such a thing I believe you have it, 
my friend.” 

“ Perhaps I have, in some people and in some 
things.” 

They were sitting round the old library table. 

“Did you get your papers, Miss Steyne ?” was 
Thorne's first question. 

“I did indeed,” she replied, “ and they are at this 
moment safely locked in the secretary ; ” and she 
rose to bring them. 

“ That is good news,” he said heartily. “ I have 
been doubly anxious about those papers to-day.” 

“Yes, she got them ; but I reckon it took some 
good management,” said Miss Price, “ with you two 
walking up the hill in plain sight, and him taking 
so much time to get them out of his pocket, till I 
couldn’t sit still on my chair,” she declared. 

Margaret laid the papers on the table. “If you 
will excuse me a few minutes I will get the other 
papers from my room ; ” and she went out. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


219 


It was then that Thorne heard the particulars of 
Margaret’s morning with Harris, and how it was 
with not a second to spare that she got the papers 
into her hands as he and Mr. Morgan came through 
the gate. 

“And,” said Miss Price compassionately, “she 
has had a hard day all through, and I am glad 
you came back to-night.” 

“ So am I,” he said. 

There was a sound of repressed feeling in his 
voice which caused Miss Price to give him a piercing 
look over her glasses ; but thinking she had been 
mistaken, she put the thought aside. 

Margaret now came in with the brass-bound box. 
This she set down on the table, and taking a key 
from her pocket, she unlocked it. At sight of 
the box in her hands there came to Mr. Thorne 
the recollections of the first time he had seen it ; 
the day she stood in the wide hall with it clasped 
to her bosom, with the startled, mystified look 
in her brown eyes, and the delicate color coming 
and going on her sweet face. These memories, as 
they rushed over him now, were freighted with as 
much pain as joy. He put his hand up to his face ; 
the light shone strong against his eyes, and it was 
a natural movement. 

“There is an old maxim,” he said, “which says, 
‘Business before pleasure.’ It is a good one to 
follow. Let us give our attention to these papers, 
and when we have disposed of them, we will talk 
of a matter of interest to us all. There is some- 
thing I wish to tell you.” 

For the space of a half hour there went on a rapid 


220 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


examination and comparison of accounts and papers, 
until a satisfactory result was reached. 

“It is better than I feared it might be,” said 
Thorne. “Your lawyer has been fairly honest as 
money matters go. The railroad securities and 
bank-stock have not been transferred to you, which 
is a careless piece of business, putting it mildly. 
Get that done ; it can soon he effected ; then you 
may control the situation and discharge your law- 
yer.” 

“ Thank goodness for that! ” exclaimed Miss Price 
decidedly 

“You observe by the receipts which your cousin 
left that he has been paid, according to contract, a 
certain sum yearly. Once this stock is transferred 
you will be in a position to be as independent as you 
could wish. A sworn statement will be necessary, 
and I will send old Squire Cranston over to-morrow 
to see you.” 

Then two letters were rapidly dictated to the two 
Northern firms, which were to be sent with the 
other papers on the morrow. 

“I feel that a burden has fallen from my heart,” 
said Margaret; “I am so glad that I can be 
free.” 

“ Yes ; the statement of his accounts which your 
cousin so carefully prepared and left for you, prac- 
tically frees you of that man, and I am heartily 
glad for you and with you. You are to be con- 
gratulated,” said Thorne warmly. “ I say this em- 
phatically, because I know more of your Lawyer 
Harris now than I did before I saw him this morn- 
ing.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


221 


“You have known him before, and were surprised 
to see him ? ” said Margaret. 

“Yes, I knew him formerly ; not so well by asso- 
ciation as by report. His name is not John C. 
Harris, but Caleb J. Harvey.” 

Margaret looked at the speaker in astonishment. 

“ I want to know ! I want to know !” exclaimed 
Miss Price, dropping excitedly into the quaint New 
England dialect. 

“ It is indeed true. I knew him many years ago 
in New Orleans. That was his home and where his 
family lived, where they now live, all that are left 
of them.” 

“Is this possible?” exclaimed Margaret. 

“Yes, it is true without a shadow of doubt. 

“ He was not a lawyer then, only a young fellow 
about town, whose sole occupation seemed to be the 
dissipations of a fashionable man. What caused 
him to change his name I cannot say. His father 
was in very moderate circumstances, though of 
good family, and it was a matter of speculation to 
some how young Harvey could afford to lead the 
idle life he did. He dressed well, and had a certain 
air about him which women found fascinating. 
He assiduously cultivated the friendship of people 
of wealth and distinction. I have heard him called 
by those who knew him well, a toady and time- 
server. But he prospered according to his desires, 
and became engaged to a young lady of wealth 
and beauty, an heiress in her own right, a ward 
of my uncle’s. As soon as the engagement was 
announced, Harvey became very impatient for a 
speedy marriage, though his affianced was much 


222 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


younger than himself. To please him, an early 
clay for the wedding had been set, when a tragedy 
occurred in his family which shocked the whole 
city, and caused a sudden cessation in the prepara- 
tions. His only sister, a beautiful young girl, was 
murdered. And theirs were not the only hearts 
made sorrowful ; the murdered girl was the affianced 
wife of your cousin Henry.” 

“ Oh, how terrible ! ” cried Margaret. “ My poor 
cousin ! No wonder he was so sad ! How was she 
murdered, and who did it ? ” she asked in a low, 
shuddering voice, involuntarily drawing nearer to 
her companions. 

‘ ‘ She was shot down by the hand of an assassin, 
as she stood by your cousin’s side, in the dusk of 
evening, on her father’s veranda. Who did it ? 
That was never known. Many theories were ad- 
vanced, but the assassin was not found, and the 
murder remains a mystery to this day.” 

“And that was the sorrow that ruined my 
cousin’s life ? ” 

“Yes; I believe you may truly say it did,” 
Thorne answered. “I was abroad at the time, 
completing my college course, and did not return 
for more than two years afterward. As it was told 
to me then, Henry Steyne was so greatly shocked 
that in a few hours after the tragedy occurred he 
was raving in the delirium of fever. In his ravings 
he talked of a face in the shrubbery, but through 
his being so ill no clue could be obtained. It was 
not thought he would recover, and the impression 
gained strength that a former mistress whom he 
had discarded had through jealousy shot his be- 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


223 


trothed to prevent his marriage. But after his 
recovery public opinion, shuttlecock-like, drifted 
again, and Henry Steyne was acquitted of the 
slightest responsibility for her death. For as soon 
as he was able to rise from a sick bed, he employed 
the best detectives to be had and set to work to find 
the murderer, but all clue seemed to have been lost 
while he was ill and unable to move in the matter. 
It was said, too, by some, that the family of Miss 
Harvey exhibited a strange apathy in the matter of 
searching for the murderer, but no strength was 
attached to the allegation by the best class of 
people, and soon after they were discussing a new 
chapter in the drama. The heiress to whom Caleb 
Harvey was engaged severed the engagement, as 
the world understood it ; but it was my uncle, as 
he long afterward confessed to me, who broke it 
off and forbade Harvey the house, firmly refusing 
to give to anyone, except Harvey, his reasons for 
doing so. I do not know them to this day. But 
what was more mysterious still and unaccounted 
for was the fact that, immediately after the sever- 
ing of the engagement, Caleb Harvey, with your 
cousin, quietly left New Orleans and never returned. 
About three years later the New Orleans papers 
published a notice of Caleb Harvey’s death ; he had 
died of a fever in a Northern city. I was never so 
astonished in my life as when I walked in on him 
this morning and found that your Lawyer Harris, 
the trusted friend of Henry Steyne, was Caleb 
Harvey, who had been counted dead all these years ; 
and I do not think the surprise was all on my side,” 
he added as he recalled the lawyer’s pallid face. 


224 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ He was not only surprised, but thoroughly 
frightened as well,” said Margaret ; “ that was plain. 
But what astonished me more, if possible, was the 
way you both recovered yourselves. How could 
you do it and ignore everything so entirely when 
you knew what you did ? ” 

“ It was the thought of how much trouble and 
annoyance he might give you, should I unmask 
him or expose him, that enabled me to be so self- 
controlled and, yes, politic,” he said with a half- 
grimace. “I was more desperately anxious than 
ever to get you free of him in every way ; and the 
best thing I could do for you after the break I had 
made, was to feign the slightest acquaintance with 
you or interest in your affairs, and get away before 
he did.” 

“You succeeded mighty well in your feigning,” 
observed Miss Price. 

“ Yes ? ” said Thorne, with that half- interrogative 
inflection which made the word as he said it seem 
half a caress. “ Do you mean with my friends as 
well ? ” 

Margaret smilingly shook her head. “It was 
the wisest thing you could have done all round. 
I only wonder that you could do it. It takes so 
much out of one.” 

“You are right, and of the best part of us. I do 
not often deal in subterfuge, but one has to meet 
people of that stamp with their own weapons. But, 
for to-day’s deceits I hold myself justified. I regard 
a man who does not stand under his own name as 
seamen do a ship at sea without a flag, entitled to 
little respect and scant quarter.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


225 


“ A man must have a strong motive to induce 
him to change his name,” remarked Miss Price. 

“ And conceal himself so persistently,” said Mar- 
garet. 

“ And write his own obituary,” added Thorne, 
“as he surely did. I am now satisfied there was 
something about that murder that would not bear 
investigation.” 

“ And we shall never know anything more about 
it than we do,” said Margaret sadly. 

“I don’t know about that,” objected Miss Re- 
becca. ‘ ' Such things don’t stay hidden forever. 
It’s my belief that it will he known sometime.” 

‘ ‘ It would seem, ” said Margaret, ‘ ‘ that my cousin 
wished all knowledge of it to die out, or he would 
have communicated the truth about it to some one 
during his lifetime.” 

“He may have done so and we not know of it. 
But you are sure of one thing without question,” 
said Thorne. 

‘ ‘ And that is ? ” 

‘ ‘ That is, that he did not want you to come into 
close relationship with Harvey, or Harris, as I 
suppose we would best continue to call him for the 
present, and urged you to annul all business relations 
with him, which of itself would tell you that for 
some reason he believed him capable of treachery 
to you.” 

‘ ' But you have not told us how you came here 
this evening,” said Margaret. “ You left Walsing- 
ham early.” 

“’We took our horses and rode as far as the old 
Cranston place, where we stopped for the night. 

*5 


226 A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 

After supper I left Morgan so that he might get 
acquainted with the Squire, his most important 
neighbor, as I told him, while I rode back here. 
How did you know that I had not come up from 
Walsingham ?” Thorne asked. 

44 1 knew,” she began, and there was just the 
slightest hesitancy in her manner ; then she went 
resolutely on — 44 I knew, because I sent Axem down 
for the mail, and she heard Harris ask Cy Smith 
about you, and he said you had gone 4 a right smart 
spell ago. 5 55 

44 Do you know there is no better authority than 
Smith, honest soul that he is ? 55 said Thorne smil- 
ing. 

44 Then you think him to be relied upon in the 
important matter of disseminating news — just com- 
mon everyday news ? 55 she asked. 

4 4 1 do. And he should have been postmaster a 
century ago, when the gathering and circulation 
of news was a part of a postmaster’s official duties. 
His services would have been invaluable. He has 
a positive faculty for acquiring news, but what is 
more rare, he is accurate in retailing it, as I have 
come to know in my short acquaintance. When he 
relates a piece of news, you may depend on its being 
just as he heard it ; there will be nothing added to 
or taken from it.” 

44 1 also learned that Lawyer Harris had left the 
village. Axem saw him take the train for Kichmond. 
And that,” continued Margaret, with animation, 
44 has made me positively happy. I have been 
breathing rarefied air ever since.” 

At this moment Hagar appeared in the doorway 


A 110MAN CE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


227 


with the announcement that she had set tea in the 
dining-room. 

“You have done this for me, and why should 
you ? ” Thorne was saying as he followed into the 
dining-room. Within, he was wondering why he 
never came to this house and left as he had planned 
to do. What fate was it that conspired to bring 
him here and labored to prevent his going away ? 

“ I think we have all merited a cup of tea,” said 
Margaret, as she settled down in the high -backed 
chair at the head of the table, a chair dark with age 
and rich in carving, a picture in itself. 

“It has been a long day ; measured by events and 
emotions, the longest of my life,” she continued. 
“For almost every emotion that the human heart 
can experience I have experienced to-day, unless it 
be remorse for the hypocrisy which I practised and 
repented of dually as I went along. My suffering 
on account of it was tangible and real. Is not 
that expiation ? ” she asked, looking across the table 
at the two who might be her judges, with just 
a faint appeal in her voice and eyes, despite her 
bravery. 

“You are guiltless,” declared Thorne; “guilt- 
less of anything calling for expiation, repentance, 
or regret. On the contrary, there are many things 
in the events of this day over which you should 
rejoice and make merry even.” 

“ Oh ! but I have had my dash of comedy as well,” 
exclaimed Margaret, looking across at Miss Price, 
who was feeling a little apprehensive over the turn 
the conversation had taken. 

“ Indeed ! ” and Thorne’s eyes lighted. “ I had 


228 


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not suspected it, and am just in the mood to be 
amused ; enlighten me, won’t you ? ” 

“ Yes, I think I may ; at least I may tell you that 
Axem has risen to the height of a genius to-day, 
a possibility never before suspected ; and in doing 
so she has made Rebecca her sincere friend and 
admirer. Ask her if it is not so.” 

Then followed a merry account of the amusing 
interview between the lawyer and Axem, in which 
Miss Rebecca’s mythical lover had been made to 
play so important a part. 

“ Well, it does seem strange how her lying came 
in so providentially.” 

“ Providentially ! Oh, Rebecca ! ” exclaimed 
Margaret. 

“ There’s nothing wrong with your orthodoxy, 
Miss Price,” assured Thorne. u Axem lied by in- 
spiration — not divine inspiration, but do you not 
believe that, being in such close proximity to her at 
the time, and thinking so intently on the matter, and 
your mind being so much stronger than hers, you 
unintentionally and unknown to her or yourself, 
transmitted to her mind the bent it took in the 
matter ? The impulse was yours ; you wished her 
to deceive the man, and she did it. The words were 
her own ; she called upon her imagination for them, 
and it did not fail her.” 

“I should say it didn’t,” declared Miss Price 
stoutly. “ But what kind of new heathenish 
doctrine is it you are talking now, about a stronger 
mind controlling a weaker without so much as a 
word being spoken ? Why, I couldn’t see her where 
I stood.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


229 


“It is far from being a new doctrine or belief, or 
altogether a heathenish one,” replied Thorne. “It 
existed centuries ago ; has always existed and been 
practiced.” 

“And what do you call it?” asked Miss Price, 
looking over her glasses with critical eye. 

“ It has been known by many different names. 
I will call it a mesmeric or magnetic influence, 
hypnotism if you like, with which, if you possess it, 
you may compel one who is not so forceful, not so 
strong in that element, to do what you will them 
to do. The victim is not responsible for his or her 
acts.” 

“My goodness! what are you talking about?” 
exclaimed Miss Price, protest in every angle of her 
body, as well as in her voice. “You can’t make 
me think I am responsible for all those lies Axem 
told. If I thought that for a minute I’d go right 
to repenting.” 

“ Rebecca objects to having a lover and an hyp- 
notic power thrust upon her in one day,” said 
Margaret, still in a merry mood. 

“I reckon I should object to two such bother- 
some things. I don’t go about seeking trouble if 
I know it. Did I understand you to say that Mr. 
Morgan had a family ? ” asked Miss Price, changing 
the subject with a sudden desperate courage that 
was almost too much for her companions. 

But with fitting equanimity Thorne replied : 

“Only his wife and an aunt of his, who kept 
house for him before he was married ; she still 
makes her home with them. I shall be surprised if 
you ladies do not like Mrs. Morgan. I have met 


230 


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her a number of times at her home, and feel sure 
you will find her a desirable neighbor.” 

“ That will be pleasant,” said Margaret, a cordial 
welcome to the new neighbors showing already in 
her lovely face. “We need just the addition of 
congenial neighbors to make us quite comfortable 
up here. When will they likely come ? ” 

“It is Morgan’s intention to begin building and 
have his house habitable at as early a date as is 
possible. We have decided to open the mine on 
your land as soon as it can be done.” 

“ Have you purchased any other land in the 
neighborhood ? ” asked Miss Price. 

“ But one tract certainly, and that Squire Cran- 
ston’s. I think it probable, however, that we will 
obtain all immediately adjoining it. I am waiting 
the result of some investigation before deciding.” 

The old timepiece chimed out eleven o’clock as 
they left the table. 

“ I must be going. Morgan will think I have 
gone for good.” 

“I am sorry to have caused you this late ride,” 
said Margaret. 

“ You would not say that if you knew how much 
I enjoy a ride under the stars. It is the poetry of 
my outdoor life, and King enjoys it with me. My 
regret is that I shall not see you again. I have spent 
many enjoyable hours in your beautiful home, 
hours which I shall always remember with pleasure. 
It is because I do not expect to see you for some 
time that I am going to ask a favor of you. I want 
both you ladies to write me a letter. I shall not 
feel easy till I know if you have your business all 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 231 


satisfactorily arranged, and are forever done with 
Lawyer Harris.” And they promised. 

He shook hands with Miss Price. “ I feel that I 
am leaving behind a friend who will remember me 
kindly,” he said. 

“ I shall always remember you kindly, Mr. Thorne, 
and I do wish you well,” she said with simple sin- 
cerity. 

Turning to Margaret he said : “ Our acquaintance 
has been short, Miss Steyne ; our paths in life seem 
to diverge here to-night ; they may not cross again, 
and I am reluctant to say good-bye. Owing to the 
business circumstances attending our acquaintance, 
I am come to know something of the difficulties and 
hardships of your position. The worst may he over ; 
I pray it is. But we cannot know, and I want to 
leave you with this promise of continued friendship 
betweeen us : if at any time in your life you should 
need a friend, I want to feel that you will call on 
me.” 

“ But, Mr. Thorne, would that be right ? ” said 
Margaret. “You have already done so much for 
me that I can never repay.” 

“And so little,” he said smiling. “You may 
never need my aid or advice in any way, Miss 
Steyne ; there is a chance for you, a wide chance,” 
he said lightly. After a moment of silence, he 
went on in that quiet, effective way, which men 
having that subtle overmastering power which 
brooks no gainsaying always possess : “I ask this 
because we cannot know what the future has in 
store for us. Life is a game. You have neither 
father nor brothers, not a male relative, you have 


232 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


told me. You cannot know how unprotected you 
seem to me — liow unprotected a woman in your 
position must seem to a man. I shall feel happier 
if you will consent to what I ask, and I think you 
will when you have thought of it.” 

He was cool and controlled. Never had Margaret 
seen or felt more clearly that fine sense of mastery 
and power in the man, that power which belongs 
only to the thoroughly manly man, than she did 
when he stood there asking for the privilege of 
interposing his strength between her and harm, if 
harm menaced her, and she knew that he would 
get her promise, even while she hesitated against 
his insistence. 

Thorne saw, as did Miss Price, that she hesitated, 
hut he could wait. He meant to get his way in the 
end. He was not selfish in this, he told himself ; 
it was for her sake, and he thought he was 
honest. 

“It is for her happiness I asked her,” he said to 
his heart — “for her happiness, and — for my salva- 
tion.” 

Down with a crash went the barriers of deception 
which he had but builded against his love for her. 
He was honest now, in these last moments when he 
was speaking his last words to her — the last ; they 
had to be that. He knew now that a battle which 
could end only with his life was to be fought. And 
the blood beat along his veins to suffocation, while 
the cool air, stealing through the open window, 
fanned his temples with a touch as gentle as that of 
a woman who loves. 

“It seems almost a solemn thing to promise,” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


233 


said Margaret slowly — “and hardly generous of me 
to do it.” 

“Don’t take that view of it,” he said quietly, 
without looking at her. 

“ But if kept in good faith, it might entail hard- 
ship, even sacrifice on you, which I have no right 
to impose ; and I should feel that I must keep it 
always, under any and all circumstances.” 

“No, there is one condition,” he said. “If I 
should ever prove unworthy your friendship you 
are released from all promises to me.” There was 
just the slight, proud lift of the head, the uncon- 
scious straightening of the shoulders, that betokens 
a conscious strength within. 

“I am not afraid,” she answered quickly. “I 
am quite certain. Leave that condition out. I 
promise, if you will consider yourself hound by the 
same conditions, for it is as you say ; life is a game 
at which we all are playing blindly.” 

“Most gladly I promise, and with no terms of 
release. Miss Price is our witness. It is uncon- 
ditional surrender, absolute capitulation on my 
part,” he said lightly, as he took her small, soft 
palm in his strong clasp. 

Thorne’s heart was exultant, but he only said : 

“ I thank you, my friend. Good-bye.” 

And he was gone down the walk with quick, 
resolute step. 

“ Returned to the darkness out of which he came,” 
said Miss Price, verging ludicrously near the senti- 
mental for her. 

They did not at once enter the house, but remained 
on the veranda enjoying the still restfulness of the 


234 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


night, which sooner than aught else soothes the 
excited brain. The sound of his horse’s feet had 
grown faint and died away before the heavy bar 
was dropped into its hasp across the hall door. 

As they passed through the hall, some object 
caught on the hem of Margaret’s gown. She freed 
her skirt from it, and picked it up. It was a spur 
which Thorne must have loosed from his boot when 
he came in, and forgotten. She stood with it in 
her hand a moment, then crossed into the library 
and locked it in her secretary. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


235 


XVII. 

THE LAWYER’S PROPOSAL. 

“ What smiles and welcomes would I give, 

Some friend to see each day I live ; 

And yet, what treasures would I pay 
If some would always stay away.” 

Not many days elapsed before Lawyer Harris was 
again seen wending his way up the hill. Taking 
into account the extreme nicety of his toilet on this 
occasion, the satisfied expression of his countenance, 
and his assured walk, you would have said it was 
an important mission upon which he was bound. 

He felt it to be the most tantalizingly interesting 
period of his life. He was to take the first step in 
that future life which he had so confidently planned 
out for himself ; he was to propose marriage to the 
fair mistress of Steyne House. He had not in- 
formed her of his coming ; he wanted to arrive 
unheralded, that he might see the sweet surprise 
in her eyes when she beheld him. 

This courtship was to be the romance of the new 
life upon which he was entering — the life that was 
to give such complete satisfaction, such unalloyed 
happiness. No doubt of failure or disaster troubled 
him. Had he not for twenty years controlled and 
shaped events? he asked in his egotism. And had 
not life yielded him what he demanded ? After all 


236 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


his long training was he less able now to mould his 
future, to wrest happiness from a stubborn world ? 
No, he was stronger to-day than he had ever been, 
and in deadly earnest. A furry brown rabbit, cud- 
dling in a bunch of grass at the side of the road, was 
startled and sprang up and across his path. He 
stood watching it as it scurried away, and into his 
mind came an old saw, or couplet, which the colored 
people repeat and believe unquestioningly : 

“ The lover whose track the rabbit shall cross, 

Must turn back home or meet a loss.” 

He looked after it a moment, then, smiling, 
walked on to his destiny. An hour later Caleb 
Harvey thought of the rabbit that had crossed his 
path, thought of it as he stood before Margaret 
Steyne, her rejected suitor, wounded, baffled, 
humiliated, with a great fury blazing from his 
eyes and a deadly anger raging in his heart. His 
voice was controlled and even, but with an effort 
that was terrible to see ; and the frail girl shud- 
dered at the demoniac passions she had innocently 
waked but could not allay. 

“You have refused me , 55 he said. “You have 
said you do not love me ; you have given that as 
your reason for rejecting me. Well, I do not be- 
lieve you. You will not give me a chance to win 
you. You have not told me all the truth. Will 
you tell me the rest ? ” 

“ What do you wish to know ? ” Margaret spoke 
low and softly, but her eyes met his unflinchingly. 
She felt as she had felt the morning that Harris and 
Thorne had faced each other in almost the same 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


287 


spot. Her courage rose within her now, as it had 
then. She could answer him as he deserved ; she 
had not meant to speak so plainly to him, had not 
thought that she would be compelled to justify her 
actions. 

“ What I want to know is, why you reject me ? 
Is there another man ahead of me ? Are you prom- 
ised ? ” The muscles of his mouth were not quite 
controlled as he asked this. 

“ No, I am not promised to any man. There is 
no one ahead of you.” And strange to say, with 
all his suspicious nature, he believed her. “Al- 
though you do not deserve that I should answer 
your question,” she went on, “no man has come 
between us in that way. ” 

The lawyer scarcely breathed while she was 
speaking, and did not move — only gazed at her 
steadily, as though he would draw her inmost 
thoughts from her by the impelling force of his 
strong will, by his eyes, which almost scorched her 
by their intensity. At last he spoke. 

“ Some one then has come between us in some 
way ; and, by heaven ! I know who it is,” he ex- 
claimed hotly, white with passion ; it is that cursed 
scoundrel I met here. He it is and no one else who 
has lied to you, has vilified me to you. It’s just 
like him to do it. Curse him ! He will never es- 
cape my vengeance now. I will ruin him, if I 
devote the rest of my life to it ; it shall be my work, 
and work well done.” 

Margaret’s heart quaked ; her courage almost 
failed before his passionate words, but she would 
not let him know. 


238 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“You doubtless know more of the gentleman 
than I, or you know but little,” she said quietly ; 
“ yet you are talking wildly. I will set you right 
if you will suspend judgment until I get a letter.” 

So saying, Margaret left the room. She was gone 
but a few moments, yet the lawyer found it long 
enough to step to the secretary, and with a rapid, 
cat-like movement, insert a key, open it, and make 
a quick search for the papers which he had seen her 
place there but a few days before. He did not find 
them ; they were gone, and he swore a savage oath. 
But Miss Steyne’s returning footsteps warned him 
that he was in peril of discovery, and he had barely 
time to lock the secretary and regain his former 
position. The keys jingled faintly upon the ring as 
he removed them from the lock. The red lip of 
Margaret Steyne curled in scorn of the cowardly 
act, for she had recognized the sound, and knew 
that only accident had saved her from being robbed, 
the accident of having removed her papers to her 
private room. She walked up to him with the open 
letter in her hand. 

“ Here is a letter which my cousin Henry left for 
me. It did not reach me for some time after I came 
here ; but that it did reach me I shall be forever 
thankful. I cannot be too grateful to him,” she 
said warmly. 

As Margaret spoke there came a change over the 
lawyer’s face. His color came and went in quick, 
flickering changes as his eyes fell on the paper, for 
he knew that Henry Steyne had written this letter, 
and the words blurred before his eyes. 

“ I wish you to read the entire letter,” she said, 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


239 


“ and tell me, if you can, what claim you have 
upon my respect and forbearance ? ” 

Harris winced at her words as if he had received 
a blow, and, despite his heroic self-command, the 
blood mounted to his forehead in a fierce hot wave 
of crimson, and his eyes dropped to the floor. 

He received the letter from her hand. He did 
not want to read it ; he wanted instead to tear it to 
atoms and fling it to the winds. He could hardly 
resist the impulse, but he must read it and know 
what it contained ; must know what charge he 
had to controvert ; and, forced against his will, he 
dropped into a chair and read it through. As he 
read his face cleared and regained its usual color. 
When he had finished, he could have laughed aloud 
in his relief. There was so little in it, so pitifully 
little in it, it seemed to him, when he had feared 
everything, when there might have been so much, 
even the one secret which he now felt was still safely 
hidden within his own breast ; it had been so well 
guarded that no one guessed there was anything to 
guard. 

All that this letter contained might easily be the 
ravings and imaginings of a man of weak intellect 
— and was. Who knew that Henry Steyne had 
been in his right mind for the past years ? 
Who but himself knew anything about the matter ? 
No one, he told himself with suddenly returning 
courage, and he determined to make the best de- 
fence he could from that vantage ground. He was 
clever enough to see that it was the only point he 
had, and he would make it serve him well. 

“ And you choose , 55 he said, with an injured air, 


240 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ to believe the childish prattle of a man who for 
years was not responsible for what he might say or 
do, because he was your cousin, and for no other 
reason. Believe all his accusations — no, not accusa- 
tions, but mere insane imaginings — and wrong me. 
You cannot be so unjust,” he urged. “ You will 
not.” 

The effrontery of the man helped Margaret to the 
courage she needed. 

“I choose,” she said firmly, “to believe in my 
cousin’s sanity and good judgment. If this letter 
were not enough I have other papers which leave no 
room for doubt. I believe so truly that he gave me 
good advice in this letter, that I have acted upon it. 
His accounts and papers were kept with such care 
aud precision, and his written directions to me were 
so clear, that I have been able to master all the im- 
portant details of my affairs, and can now relieve 
you of all further trouble about them. Your 
responsibility may cease from this hour. You are 
no longer my adviser or agent.” 

Had a thunderbolt riven its way through the roof 
and dropped at his feet, the lawyer would not have 
been more astonished. Her words stunned him. 
The veins stood out on his forehead in knots ; his 
voice was husky and hard as points of broken steel. 

“ You ! ” he burst forth. “ What do you know ? 
You would not dare.” 

“ What do I know ? Is it of the business you are 
speaking ? ” she asked, with a look of dauntless 
courage. “ If so, I know that you received a certain 
sum yearly for attending to my cousin’s business, 
and that I hold your receipts to him for your salary, 


A ROMANCE OF TIIE NEW VIRGINIA . 


241 


paid up to the time of his death. I know also that 
the railroad stock securities and bank stock, which 
came to me as a part of my inheritance, have not 
been transferred to me, and further that the semi- 
annual dividends for the past two years have been 
drawn by you and have not been accounted for ; but 
these you may retain as remuneration for service 
rendered. And I do dare discharge you.” Her 
voice was ringing and decisive. 

He made no reply. The silence was as that of 
death. Had the old clock ever ticked so loudly be- 
fore, Margaret wondered. Had it ever timed the 
birth and flight of such passions as now tossed and 
sivayed the heart of the strong man who stood 
before her, a prototype of all that was bitter and 
vengeful ? A minute passed ; it seemed an eternity. 
Then he came a step nearer and stood before her, 
cold, hard, unflinching as iron, and spoke in slow 
measured tones, every word of which was as a poi- 
soned dagger in the heart of the sensitive woman. 
But she did not shrink. She had the blood of her 
soldier ancestors in her veins, blood as yet untried 
and unproved. It did not fail her now. 

“ You have obeyed your cousin’s instructions in 
part,” he said, “ but you have not done a wise thing 
in making an enemy of me ; you may be sorry in 
time that you have chosen to do so. That you have 
done all this alone, and because of your cousin’s let- 
ter, I will never believe. Some man who knew what 
to do influenced and advised you to this step — yes, 
aided you. And that man was Thompson Thorne. 
I hate him with the bitterest hatred a man’s heart 
can hold, and I curse him with the deepest curse 
1 6 


242 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


that man’s tongue can utter. It is not the first time 
he has crossed my path, nor the first time he has 
thwarted my plans ; and he will never forget that he 
has done so now. For this day’s work I will take 
my revenge, now or years hence ; it will never be 
too late. Remember.” 

With these words he left the house. Then Mar- 
garet did what she had never done before in her life, 
broke down utterly, and dropping into a seat, she 
covered her face with her hands and cried as if her 
heart were breaking. 

Axem, hovering about the hall like a shadow, 
rushed into the room. One glance, and as an arrow 
from a bow she flew in search of Miss Price and the 
camphor bottle. But faithful Rebecca, when she 
saw what was the matter, dropped the bottle, and 
putting her strong arms around the sobbing girl 
drew her head down on to her shoulder. 

“ Just cry away, dear child ; you’ll be all the better 
of it ; ” and there were tears in the blue-gray eyes 
that had not been there for years. 

But Axem, when she saw no improvement in the 
mistress she almost worshipped, could endure the 
strain in silence no longer, and she rushed into the 
hall, threw herself down full-length, and pounded 
her head on the floor, howling in sympathy with such 
vigor as to bring Hagar upon the scene. Hagar, 
finding that nothing serious had occurred, seized 
Axem and bore her off to the kitchen, where with a 
stern hand she deposited her under the kitchen table, 
with “ Hish dat fuss up.” 

Margaret, between tears and laughter at the 
ludicrous spectacle, made a struggle and sat up. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


243 


“ What a goose I am ! Why don’t you scold me, 
Rebecca ? 55 She smiled, while the eyes were still 
bright with tears. 

“ Because I don’t want to scold you ; and I don’t 
want you to talk about anything till you have had 
your dinner and rested. Then you may tell me just 
what you wish.” 

“ What should I do without you, you loving old 
soul ? You are always the same indulgent friend, 
whether I am unreasonable or not.” 

“ Unreasonable isn’t the word. Do you suppose I 
would like you as well as I do if you didn’t have any 
feelings ? It’s best to cry when you feel bad, and 
if I was young again I’d learn how ; yes, I would.” 

Margaret smiled wearily and closed her eyes. She 
looked pale as her head nestled against the dark 
red cover of the high chair, and there was a little 
pathetic droop at the corners of her mouth like that 
of a grieved child. 

Miss Price, as she looked at her, felt herself grow- 
ing savage with the whole race of men. “ They are 
such brutes ! ” she exclaimed inaudibly. But almost 
in the same breath she faced about on herself, and 
throttling with no weak hand the demon of suspicion 
and injustice which for a moment had taken pos- 
session of her heart, proceeded to give herself a 
mental dressing-down. 

“What are you coming to, Rebecca Price, I 
wonder ? At your time of life to be saying there 
are no good men in the world, when you know bet- 
ter ; when you know that every day and hour in this 
great world grand men are to be found who are giv- 
ing the best of their lives for the bettering and up- 


244 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


lifting of mankind ; not only the best of their 
lives, but oftentimes life itself ! I am ashamed of 
you.” 

She looked across at Margaret with a yearning 
glance. The heart of the austere, lonely old maid 
had grown soft and tender through her love for her 
young friend. What her own life would have been 
without this love and companionship she could not 
bear to think. She shrank from the memories of 
the old life. It had been so barren and dreary, bar- 
ren of love and joyous companionship, dreary in the 
dead commonplace of the monotonous round of 
everyday duties performed just because they were 
her duties, with no hope in them, with no delight. 
It had all been so different since she had found 
Margaret ; she was happier than she had ever been 
in her life before, and her content was measureless. 
She was ready now to have any trial come to her ; 
willing to interpose her strength and years at all 
times and at any sacrifice, if sacrifice were necessary 2 
so that Margaret might be spared sorrow and be 
made happy. 

The dinner bell rang. The white lids stirred and 
opened, then drooped again ; but Margaret made no 
effort to rouse herself, and was drifting off into a 
languid stupor, when Rebecca’s brisk tones brought 
her back to herself. 

“ Come and have a cup of coffee, Margaret ; after 
that you may rest.” 

“I am so tired,” Margaret responded, rousing 
herself with an effort. “ I believe I could sit as I 
am without moving all day ; it is such a pleasure 
merely to be still.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


245 


“But I would not do it,” said Miss Rebecca, look- 
ing anxiously over her glasses at her and getting to 
her feet. “ You had better come to the table. I 
shall not enjoy my dinner if you do not.” 

Margaret was at once aroused, and pulling her- 
self up from her chair followed into the dining- 
room. 

Miss Rebecca hastened to wait on her with quiet 
solicitude while she drank her coffee, and when she 
saw that under its effect Margaret brightened and 
threw off her languor, she immediately recovered 
her cheerfulness and chatted away with what was 
loquaciousness in her, talking on any and every 
topic that was as remote as possible from the occur- 
rence of the morning. 

When they returned to the library door and were 
about to enter, Margaret hesitated on the threshold 
and finally turned back saying, “ Let us not sit here. 
I do not like this room to-day ; we will go up to my 
room. Would you mind bringing your work there ? 
Then we can talk, and I shall like that.” 

When, after a few minutes spent in her own room, 
Miss Price returned, she found Margaret lying on 
the lounge. Her eyes were closed and her face wore 
the same look it had worn down in the library. 
Miss Rebecca sat down and quietly watched her. 
Margaret did not stir, and soon her breathing be- 
came regular, and the worried, grieved look faded 
out of her face, and she slept heavy and dreamless 
through the afternoon. 

Miss Rebecca, satisfied that a good, restful sleep 
was the best medicine, took up her knitting, and 
with it took up again the wonder as to what Law- 


246 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


yer Harris or Harvey could have said to Margaret 
to prostrate her so completely. That he had asked 
her to marry him she felt sure, hut he must have 
said hard, cruel things to her. 

“ Now, if he could only have proposed to me, how 
I would have enjoyed telling him what I thought of 
him ! ” and the unimaginative, practical Miss Price 
turned curiously over in her mind various grim 
expedients that might have been useful in case of a 
determined and persistent declaration of love. 

In such speculations she found a certain amuse- 
ment and occupation which served to fill the hours 
of the afternoon while Margaret slept ; hut when 
the rays of the sun slanted low against the window, 
and the shadows doubled their length, then Miss 
Price began to cast anxious looks at the sleeping 
girl. She rose and laid her hand on Margaret’s 
wrist, the soft, white, rounded wrist from which 
the full lace-trimmed sleeve fell back. There was 
no fever, though the pulse was not strong nor quite 
regular, and with a troubled face she went back to 
her seat, to the hardest of all tasks — waiting. But 
the waiting this time was, happily, of short dura- 
tion, for almost immediately Margaret opened her 
eyes and looked at the clock. 

“ Why did you not wake me ? ” she asked. 

“No need to do that; you wanted the rest, I 
reckon, or you would not have slept. But now 
that you are awake, if you will come right down, 
I will go and see that our tea is made ready for us.” 

And Miss Rebecca descended to the kitchen, with 
a face so cheerful and content that Ilagar was 
moved to speak of it. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


247 


“ I d’clar ! Miss Becky, ye mus’ done hab a vision 
or sumpin’, ye look so chippersome.” 

Miss Rebecca’s only reply was a smile. 

No, she was not sick ; there was nothing what- 
ever the matter with her ; she was just tired, Mar- 
garet would answer to all her inquiries ; the heat 
had been so constant of late. 

It was in the quiet evening, as twilight fell, when 
the birds were quiet in the woods, and the katydids 
cried monotonously in the old Virginia creeper, that 
Margaret told Rebecca of the lawyer’s proposal, and 
of his blind, passionate anger at her refusal, his 
assertions that Mr. Thorne was to blame for it, and 
that he had advised her about her business, not even 
Henry Steyne’s letter serving to abate one jot of his 
belief. 

“ And he dared to be angry with you ! What did 
he say ? ” almost demanded Miss Price, her shoulders 
bristling at a combative angle. 

“ Oh ! he was hard and terrible in his anger. I 
could not tell you how hard ; he was cruel, cruel.” 
And Margaret shuddered as she again saw him with 
that still, deathlike passion in his face, and heard 
again his deep curses and vows of vengeance. 

“And you did not tell him that you knew his 
name was not Harris ? — that he had given out 
that he was dead, and that he was living now under 
an assumed name? You did not tell him that?” 
exclaimed Rebecca, furious at his ruffianly treat- 
ment of Margaret. 

“ Oh, I did not dare, for Mr. Thorne’s sake. He 
would have known then that Mr. Thorne told us. 
All I could do I did. I tried to have him think it 


248 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


was cousin Henry’s letter alone that influenced me. 
I could not bring Mr. Thorne into the trouble. He 
has been so kind to us.” 

“ If your cousin had done as he should have done, 
told you all about that man’s past life, you could 
have talked to him as you pleased, and he would 
not have dared to use you as he did, threatening 
you. It makes my blood boil,” declared Rebecca 
Price ; and her mouth settled into a determined 
curve that would have meant battle royal had it 
been her fortune to meet Harris. 

“ Rebecca, do not blame my cousin,” pleaded 
Margaret. “When I think of the life he must 
have led with that man, of the years of forced com- 
panionship — rather espionage — which he endured, I 
pity him with the deepest pity my heart can feel. I 
am only afraid that Harris will injure Mr. Thorne 
in some way ; it is too bad that he should go get 
into trouble through helping me. What can I do ? ” 

“If you really believe that Harris means harm, 
you can let him know about it, so he can watch out 
for him. It’s sure to be some underhand work, 
when he does move, and you had best tell Mr. 
Thorne at once.” 

“Why not?” asked Miss Price, as Margaret 
shook her head negatively. 

“How can I? I will not tell him that Harris 
proposed marriage to me. I hope no one will ever 
know that. And my business is not all settled yet, 
and may not be for a little time. I see no way to 
write now, but as soon as my affairs are arranged I 
shall keep my promise and write him a letter, in 
which I will try to warn him in a way that he may 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


249 


believe it is on account of business matters alone 
that we have incurred Harris’s anger and suspicion. 
I feel tired still,” she added lazily. “ I believe I will 
go up to my room, though it is early.” 

“ Yes, do ; it will be best for you, and in the 
morning you will feel a different person,” comforted 
Miss Rebecca ; and vowing to herself that she would 
not take her stockings off that night, she locked the 
door and followed upstairs. 

Rebecca Price had “made up her mind,” and her 
shoulders were just a trifle more angular, her back 
more severely straight and resolute. She was going 
to watch Margaret’s slumbers through the night, 
not yet able to banish the fear that the languor and 
prostration which had overtaken her might be the 
forerunner of a spell of sickness, brought on by the 
excitement of the morning. But there was some- 
thing else on her mind. She had made another 
resolve she meant to carry out, which required time 
and labor to accomplish, and it was hours before the 
light went out in her room. It was not until the 
gray light appeared in the east, and day began to 
break that she ceased her stolen visits to that other 
bedside, and sought her own with a lightened spirit 
and a thankful heart, for Margaret slept the sleep 
of utter prostration, and did not stir. 

The air had cooled through the night, and the 
morning was sweet with the breath of the dew 
when Margaret Steyne came down. She felt the 
freshness in her eyes as she stood at the open win- 
dow of the dining-room. She was pale, and her 
eyes were tired, with heavy, dark circles about 
them. But the night’s rest had done wonders for 


250 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


her, she was assuring her friend, and she seemed 
so like her old self in spirit that Miss Price folded 
away her fears in the folds of her napkin, and said 
as she rose from the breakfast table : 

“I believe I will go down to Walsingham this 
morning, Margaret. There is some buying to do 
which should be done to-day.” 

“Then be sure to start early, that you maybe 
back before the heat comes on,” urged Margaret. 
“ I shall look about for a safe horse to drive, that 
we may not have to walk, and can go together 
when we wish.” 

She stood on the veranda and watched them off, 
Miss Price and Axem, between whom there had 
come a most amicable understanding. Miss Ee- 
becca had found out that the little black girl was 
quick-witted and loyal, and that, notwithstanding 
all her impishness, she was to be trusted implicitly 
where her mistress was concerned ; and that , to 
Eebecca, was the sum total of the requirements 
expected of Axem. 

Margaret went off to the kennel to unchain Eolfe 
for the day. They would soon leave off chaining him 
altogether, for he had grown accustomed to the 
ways of the place, and to know the people who came 
therein a neighborly way. She looked across at the 
wood in its fresh green beauty. Should she go for 
a walk or return to the house ? But the dew was 
heavy on the grass, and she went back resolving to 
go later. 

In the library she drew up a chair in front of the 
secretary and opened it. Her eyes fell at once on 
the spur, which lay just where she had placed it, in 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


251 


plain sight, the first object one must see on opening 
the secretary. In a flash she remembered that 
Lawyer Harris had searched the secretary. He 
must have seen the spur and guessed to whom it 
belonged, and had given the accident an import in 
keeping with his suspicious nature. Things were 
growing clearer to her now. She sat thinking over 
the events of the past few weeks. How they had 
crowded into her life, each lapping fast upon the 
one before like waves on the seashore ; yet, unlike 
the sea waves, the last did not obliterate the imprint 
of the one before it. Each would leave its distinct 
impress upon her life, where it must forever re- 
main. 

Hagar passed through the hall, and her mistress 
spoke to her. 

“ I am going up to the secret room, Hagar, and 
do not wish to be disturbed. Do you understand % ” 

“ ’Deed I doz, honey. You jes’ lock the lib’ry 
doah aftah me now, an’ nobody’ll cum nigh ye.” 

Margaret locked the door, picked up the spur, and 
passed through the closet by the fireplace and up the 
narrow, padded stair, which gave back no echo of 
her footsteps. She was following a sudden impulse 
in putting this spur where it would not again be 
seen by anyone save herself. She thought of the 
secret room with feelings of relief and gratitude 
that it was there, and that she alone had access to 
it. No one could pry and rummage there. 

She took the key from the top of the casing, as 
Hagar had done, and unlocked the door. She went 
over to the window and threw it open. The sweet- 
morning air came in with refreshing coolness, and 


252 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


the white pigeons came and crooned on the sill in 
friendly fashion. 

Margaret had not told Miss Price about this room. 
She felt about it as one feels when he knows there 
is a hidden chamber in his heart wherein is shrined 
some happy memory unknown and unguessed of by 
others. Hagar knew, yet it was to her but an 
empty, unmeaning room, and she was to be trusted. 
Margaret did not mean that anyone else should 
know now ; she might feel different about it some- 
time ; she did not know. We know so little how 
we shall feel to-morrow by what we feel to-day, 
but we are ruled by what we feel to-day. When 
she came up here she felt this. She was cut en- 
tirely off from the rest of the world, shut away from 
everything, from everyone. “Just my heart and 
I,” she said. 

This room had always been sacred to the masters 
of Steyne House, she had been told. She was the 
new owner, and she would keep to family tradition. 
She had a sentiment about it, too ; she felt nearer 
to her father’s people here in this room than any- 
where else in the old home. 

“This secret room is my one special legacy, my 
one hint of mystery,” she said. “ I cannot share it 
with anyone. It was in this room that I received 
the only message I have had from my cousin, the only 
word of kindly interest, which he, unhappy man, 
left me, and should I ever receive another communi- 
cation from him, I feel that it will come to me here. 
If I had reason to think there might be one, I be- 
lieve I should never stop searching until I found 
it ; ” and obeying a new impulse which came to her, 


A ROMANCE OF TIIE NEW VIRGINIA. 253 

she got up and walked back and forth, scanning the 
brown rafters as she had not before. Across 
the floor she went, board by board, wondering and 
half laughing at herself as she did so. All was 
solid, tight, empty, and bare. 

She went back to her chair by the table, smiling 
at her idle fancies. 

“I must not let such a thought take possession 
of me as that there is a possibility of anything 
being hidden in this room ; it would spoil my 
pleasure in coming here. And what do I want 
more than I have already received ? Can I put it 
into words ? Yes ; I want to know something more 
about my people, but, most of all, I want to know 
about my cousin Henry, as the last of my relatives. 
I want to know all the cruel mystery of his life. I 
want to know who murdered his betrothed bride. 
I want to know all there is to know, and I believe it 
will come to me some time,” she continued slowly, 
the conviction growing in her mind with strange, 
insistent force. 

She still held the spur in her hand ; she was going 
to put it in the drawer of the table. She laid it down 
on the old table, which was scarred and scratched 
with long usage. The drawer, warped by age, 
pulled awry when she opened it. There lay some 
books in it now, just as they had been placed by 
the master’s hand. She stooped to read the 
titles: Milton’s “ Paradise Lost,” a copy each of 
Shakespeare’s and Tennyson’s poems, worn and 
thumbed with much handling, bindings faded and 
broken. 

“My cousin’s friends,” she said, laying her hand 


254 A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 

tenderly on the treasured companions of his lonely 
life. 

He could not have been quite unhappy with such 
companionship, she thought. She did not disturb 
them, but with a little wrench drew the drawer 
farther out that she might lay the spur behind them, 
when there came into view another and smaller 
compartment of the drawer. A partition divided 
it into two parts, leaving a narrow box-like space 
at the back. This partition she had thought was 
the back of the drawer when she had looked into 
it before. She pulled the drawer quickly from its 
place and set it on the table. 

The small division was partly filled with papers. 
No more welcome sight could have met her eye. 
Her hand trembled with excitement as she moved 
them about. At last she came upon what looked 
like a bundle of manuscripts. Was her desire to be 
gratified ? She grasped it eagerly, hungrily, as a 
miser his gold, for her eyes had lighted on the words 
“My Story,” written across the top of the page. 
The writing looked like her cousin’s. Could it be 
the story of his life that she held in her hands ? 

Her fingers trembled and the leaves fluttered be- 
tween them. At last she had found the end. Yes, 
it was there, “ Henry Steyne,” the name before all 
others she wanted most to find written there. There 
was no longer a doubt, she had in her hands what 
she had long wished for. 

She laid the spur in the place where she had found 
the manuscript, and pushed the drawer back. She 
cared no more now for what it might contain. She 
closed the window, then went down the stair, and 


A HOMAN CE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA, 


255 


hung the long gray cloak carefully over the par- 
ticular nail, the third, counting to the left, that hid 
the spring. She desired more than ever that the 
room should remain undiscovered. 

She passed out of the house, into the sunshine, 
and calling her dog, strolled out to the wood. She 
sat down at the foot of the spreading beech tree 
where she often lingered. Now that she had her 
cousin’s story she almost feared to read it. She 
would not, she decided, until she was composed and 
quiet. And an hour later, when Axern came to 
bring her a letter, she was still sitting, looking 
across the valley, with the unread papers lying in 
her lap. 

While Margaret read her letter the little black 
maid sprawled on the cool grass, thrusting out her 
tongue derisively at the huge dog, daring him to 
“ jes’ put yer paw on me,” while he good-naturedly 
regarded her as he would an active fly. But when 
her mistress had finished reading her letter, Axem 
gathered herself up and stood respectfully before 
her, waiting to be spoken to. This little prelude or 
ceremonial she never omitted when she had any- 
thing to communicate. 

“ What is it, Axem ? ” 

“I saw him down dar,” indicating by a wag of 
her head the village below. 

“ Saw him ? Who was it you saw ? ” 

“Why him; dat ole tecky-gobble lawyeh what 
was heah y’ste’day.” 

“ Why, Axem ! Are you sure you saw him ? ” 
Margaret exclaimed in astonishment, almost fear. 

“Shuah!” asserted Axem stoutly. “ I knows 


258 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


’im, de ole pizen snake. He done onlock you’ns’ 
writin’ cubboad wid a key when you’ns went up- 
stairs. I done see ’im down dar dis mawin’s true’s 
I lib.” 

Margaret Steyne drew in her breath sharply ; a feel- 
ing of terror was coming upon her. Why was he still 
in the neighborhood ? Was he so eager to carry out 
his threats of vengeance that he would not return 
to Richmond until he could form some plan or dis- 
cover something to aid him ? She thought now of 
her cousin’s words, “ He would make a hard, bitter 
enemy to man or woman ; ” and he was her enemy 
now, and she felt that her cousin had spoken truly. 

“ What did you say you saw him do while I was 
out of the room yesterday — look in my desk ? ” 

“ Yes, missus, I did. I cross my heart.” 

“ How did you come to see him ? ” 

“ I dis’ went fru de hall, an I see ’im plain as de 
sun in de heaben.” 

“ Did he see you ?” 

“Naw, ’im had liis’n back to dedoah.” 

Margaret rose hurriedly and went to the house. 
She was more disturbed by the news of this man’s 
proximity than she wanted to own to herself. Miss 
Price was coming through the front door on her 
way to find her. 

‘ ‘ Rebecca, Axem says she saw Harris down at 
Walsingham this morning. Is it true?” she asked 
anxiously, with lips that trembled despite her efforts. 

“ Yes, it’s true enough. I saw him, and I reckon 
he didn’t want me to see him either. The way he 
skedaddled behind that store building out of sight 
was mighty funny. I shouldn’t have seen him, but 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


257 


Axem clapt her eyes on him too quick, and told me 
to look. He was talking to Cy Smith. ” 

‘ ‘ That’s the postmaster, you mean ? ” 

“ Yes ; and when I saw that, thinks I, he isn’t up 
to any good ; spying round here like’s not to learn 
something, and he might get things through Cy 
Smith he could get no other way.” 

“Oh, Rebecca! you don’t mean the mail, do 
you?” 

“Yes, partly. I didn’t like the looks of it. I 
thought it over while I was buying groceries at the 
other store, and when I got through I went back to 
the post-office, got the mail, for the train was in by 
that time, and I think he went away on that train 
too. Well, I got some envelopes and some stamps, 
and talked sociably to Cy Smith about his folks, 
and found out I knew some of them, which always 
makes a Virginian sociable. Then I led up to ask- 
ing him who the man was he had been talking 
to?” 

“ ‘ Wa’ll now,’ he says in that odd way of his — he 
always sprawls his words — ‘ why, it wuz the lawyer 
as doos business fer the new missis up at Sten 
House. Seems strange ye didn’t sense who it wuz ; 
thought ye’d ’a’ knowed ’im sure.’ 

“ ‘ I do know the lawyer, but my eyes aren’t as 
good as they used to be. I am not as young as you 
be,’ said I ; and that pleased him, for, you see, he is 
a widower. But I told him he was mistaken ; that 
Harris used to be the lawyer for your cousin, and 
had been for you too, but he wasn’t any more ; 
the business had all been settled up, and he wouldn’t 
be coming hack any more, unless he had other busi- 


258 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


ness. ‘ Isn’t he a sort of post-office detective, or 
hasn’t he something to do with it ? ’ I ventured. 

“‘ What’s that?’ he said nervously, eying me 
with them queer blue eyes of his that look like 
blue-chiny teacups, most ready to jump out of his 
head. 

“‘Why, the postmaster at Washington,’ I ex- 
plained, ‘ sends men out on the quiet, to see if things 
are going on right. They sometimes try to get the 
postmaster to do something that is against the law ; 
then they report to Washington, and often the post- 
offices are taken from the postmasters, and they 
have to pay money fines too.’ Before I was through 
he was so badly scared he was shaking like a quaking- 
asp leaf. I knew then that I had guessed right 
when I had suspected Harris of wanting to tamper 
with things through Cy Smith. But you may rest 
assured of one thing ; he will get no favors there, 
nor information either. That post-office has been 
the ambition of Cy Smith’s life. He’ll talk no more 
to strangers, nor allow anybody to meddle with the 
mails,” declared Miss Rebecca. 

“Well, Rebecca, I am proud of you. You are a 
born diplomat ; I shall never be afraid again,” as- 
serted Margaret. “But poor Smith ! what a fright 
you must have given him ! ” 

“It was hardly fair and neighborly,” acknowl- 
edged Miss Price, “but it’s better to have a man 
afraid of you than you to be afraid of him.” 

“Much the safest, I am sure,” replied Margaret. 
“ But how surely each day brings us our little 
comedy, if we only see it, amid the more serious 
things of life which crowd upon us ; and they do 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


259 


press upon us, fence and protest against them as we 
may.” 

“ Now I have some good news to tell you,” said 
Miss Price, cheerfully. “ Mr. Morgan has come and 
brought lumber and carpenters, a lot of them, with 
teams and everything, and they are already at 
work on his house.” 

“That is pleasant news;” and Margaret’s face 
brightened as a cloud-shadow touched by a sun- 
beam ; “ for now we know that we shall soon have 
neighbors.” 

“ Yes,” said Rebecca, “only I do wish it was Mr. 
Thorne ; I should feel that comfort had camped 
down beside me. I never knew anyone whom I 
trusted and believed in, on short acquaintance, as I 
trusted and believed in him. He is such a positive 
person, I feel safe to let him tell me what to do, and 
do it without question.” 

“Yes, I think he would impress most people so,” 
Margaret returned. 

“I have always liked him,” continued Rebecca. 
“ It seemed from the first that I had always known 
him.” 

“ I’m sure I look upon him as my only rival in 
your affections. It is a mutual falling in liking, I 
believe ; ” and Margaret smiled a little. 

She always smiled at Rebecca’s enthusiasm about 
Mr. Thorne, and encouraged it. She liked to see 
her friend moved to the expression of her feelings, 
for the austere, rigid New England training and 
self-restraint under which she had grown up, in 
connection with her lonely, self-contained life, had 
taken not a little of the beauty and sweetness out 


260 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


of her nature, which Margaret wanted to see re- 
stored. But the smiles died away from Margaret’s 
face as she glanced down at the roll of papers in her 
hand. 

4 4 Rebecca, have you anything particular to do 
to-day ? If you have, won’t you finish it before 
noon ? I have something I want to read to you. 
I have found 4 Henry Steyne’s Story,’ written by 
himself. I’ve been waiting for you to come home 
that we might read it together.” 

44 1 want to know!” exclaimed Miss Rebecca. 
44 Why, how and where did you find it ? Are you 
sure it is his own story? You have read it, you 
say ? ” Miss Price was more excited than Margaret 
had often seen her. 

44 Only enough of it to know that it is truly the 
story of his life. I found it among his books, and 
I am so glad.” 

44 Well ! I reckon I’m more glad than I can tell, for 
now we can get at the truth of things we have wanted 
to know but could only wonder and guess about. 
I’ll go right off to the poultry yard, instead of wait- 
ing until after dinner. Come out and see the new 
flocks I have taken off the past two days,” said 
Rebecca, looking closely but furtively at Margaret’s 
face ; and by some contrivance she kept close to her 
through the hour that remained before dinner. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA 


261 


XVIII. 

THE STORY OF HENRY STEYNE. 

“ Many times in the years gone by, when I sat by 
my lonely fireside, and memory was busy with the 
events of my life, I have been tempted to write them 
down. Then I would change my mind about it, 
and not do it. I do not know that I am more waver- 
ing than most men who have no motive to urge 
them to do a thing. Sometimes I think it must be 
so. But when I look back over my life I see but 
a wide, dreary, barren waste, with nothing left to 
mark it but dark spots of pain and suffering. It 
cannot be lived over, cannot be helped or undone. 
Why, then, should I write about it ? I look before 
me into the future and see nothing that gives prom- 
ise that my life’s story would be of help to anyone 
near and dear to me. There are none such. My 
kindred, if any live, are all distant. I know them 
not. He who will come after me into this house 
may be happily married, with a houseful of romp- 
ing boys and girls. They would not heed it. Why, 
then, should I trouble about it ? 

“ Thus I reasoned, not once but many times, and 
the years went by. At last I have been brought to 
a decision, by an incident which happened to me to- 
night. 

“I sat before my slumbering fire without other 
light than the dull glow of the embers in the wide 


262 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


fire-hole. The logs crackled and fell apart, and the 
golden sparks showered upwards. I watched the 
picture in dreamy enjoyment while the twilight 
came softly on. It is the hour of all the day around 
which the saddest and sweetest memories of my life 
cluster. 

“I searched among the ashes of the past, and 
culled out the happiest memories I could find, hug- 
ging them to my heart with as much pain as joy, 
when suddenly a pistol-shot rang out on the air. 
Then life seemed to be going out of me in one great 
throb of agony, and for a brief time the tragedy of 
my life was before me again, as real as it had been 
at first. I felt at my side the clinging, shrinking 
form of my bride, and saw the red stain on the white 
gown over the stilled heart. We ofttimes think we 
have buried a sorrow ; then, some day, without warn- 
ing, we find it tearing at our heart. 

“ Not for almost twenty years had I heard a soli- 
tary pistol-shot at that hour in the evening. It is 
the one sound at all times that I cannot bear to hear, 
the one sound I have constantly striven to avoid 
hearing. 

“ I sent for my black man and questioned him. 
He said it had been fired by young Jack Cranston, 
Squire Cranston’s son. Going this way for a short- 
cut home from Walsingham, he had fired his pistol 
at a rabbit that sprang out of covert. So the voices 
of memory will not be still to-night. They chase 
each other tumultuously through my heart and 
brain in restless waves and throbs of sadness. They 
clamor once again to be heard and will not be hushed 
until I give them utterance. So be it, I will write. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


263 


“ It is the fifth of October, and the new autumn 
wind is in the chimney. I draw my table near the 
fire, snuff my candles, and begin. 

“ There was nothing out of common in my child- 
hood to record. I had no brothers or sisters ; I lived 
at home, and studied under a tutor while my father 
lived. I was fourteen when he was drowned in a 
steamboat disaster on the Mississippi. After that 
my mother was never strong, and to relieve her of 
the oversight of my education I was sent to a pri- 
vate school for boys within easy reach of home. 
Later I went to college, where I remained until I 
graduated, spending only my vacations at home. 
When I was twenty -eight I was alone in the world. 

“ After that I stayed at home a year looking after 
the plantation. But it was a lonely life, and in the 
fall when I was twenty-nine I arranged my affairs 
for an absence of some months and went to New 
Orleans to stay the winter. I had a number of col- 
lege friends there who made a very pleasant time 
for me, for, while I had my apartments at the inn, 
I saw much of them in their own homes. It was 
when I stayed a few days at the home of Caleb Har- 
vey — he had been a junior while I was a senior, but 
I had done him some small favor which he remem- 
bered gratefully — that I met his only sister. When 
I first looked into her eyes I recognized that sweet 
affinity of soul which is nature's own law of love, 
and I felt that this love, which sprang into being at 
sight of her, would pervade my life, and rule it in 
all its best impulses, as it ever has ruled it. 

“ Could I describe to you the slender, sylph-like 
form, the bonnie sweet face, its rare, dark beauty, 


264 


A R OMAN CE OF TIIE NEW VIRGINIA. 


with the color coming and going fitfully in the velvet 
cheek —could I picture to you all this, you could not 
see the love-light in the sweet eyes, as I saw it, the 
love-light that kindled there for me. 

“ I loved Marian from the first hour I saw her ; 
and when we had known each other but a few weeks 
she was my promised wife. So sweet and womanly 
was she in her new dignity that the measure of my 
happiness was complete. 0 Heavenly Father, if it 
could have remained to me ! — I can write no more 
to-night. 

“ This is the eighth day of the month. The wind 
has risen in the last hour, and brings a scent of rain 
with it. The brown leaves go by with a flurry, and 
as I look, there is a soft rush of mist on the pane. 
I am glad that it rains. I shall stay by my hearth 
to-day, and take up my story. 

“ No obstacle was interposed to our marriage, and 
an early day was set for it, the tenth of May. I 
have been told many times since that May is an 
unlucky month in which to be married ; and maybe 
it is true ; who knows ? 1 was going to remain in 

New Orleans till then. When I had spoken of go- 
ing North to prepare my home for her reception, she 
said she would rather have me stay in New Orleans, 
that we might spend the remaining time together ; 
and then she would like to go with me to my home 
just as it was. She did not wish me to change it 
because she was going into it. 

“ I was pleased that she was so considerate ; but 
what gratified me most was that she did not want 
to be separated from me, even for so short a time. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


265 


I remember her words : ‘ Our courtship has been so 
short, dear, I do not want to lose any of it ; the pres- 
ent is all we are sure of. Let us not sacrifice too 
much of our happiness..’ 

“ I have often wondered whether or not she had 
a presentiment of what the future might bring. If 
so, she never told me of it ; but I thank God over 
and over that I did as she wanted me to do. I 
should have had a lifelong remorse had I left her. 

“ Time passed swiftly. It lacked but a few days 
of our wedding day — five short days. I was spend- 
ing the evening with her, and we had gone out on 
the veranda to watch the fireflies ; it was becoming 
dusk, and they had gathered thick in the low- 
growth trees, where they made a pretty sight. 
Caleb, her brother, was on the veranda, leaning 
against the railing. We all stood talking together 
in a light way, when I was startled by seeing a 
woman’s face in the shrubbery, close on our right. 
It was a wild, dark face, and had a hunted look. 
This was all I saw, for it was but as a flash. Whether 
Caleb saw the face or not I do not know. He did 
not speak, but stepped back just as a pistol-shot 
rang out on the air. It startled us all, and the 
hands of my dear one at my side closed over my 
arm convulsively. I felt her shrink, and put my 
arm about her ; but when I looked down the warm 
blood was fast dyeing her white gown. I took her 
in my arms, but the sweet eyes were set and still. 
She was dead ! Shot through the heart, they said. 
My dear one ! I called aloud on God to slay me, 
and then I remembered nothing more. 

“It was weeks before I recovered consciousness, 


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they told me, and months before I was able to leave 
the house. I had had a brain fever, and no one 
thought I would live. 

“The murderess had not been found, and I felt 
that my life had been spared that I might track the 
assassin of my bride. She had not an enemy, but 
was beloved by all who knew her, and no clue could 
be found. Caleb had seen no one in the shrubbery, 
he said ; but I had seen, and the cruel face which 
only for a moment had looked forth from the dark 
bank of foliage, would never fade from my memory 
while consciousness endured. And it has not, but 
is as plain to me to-night as the night I saw it. 

“ With only the face to guide me I set out on my 
search. Her people had given up all hope of learn- 
ing anything of the murderer, Caleb saying to me 
that I was foolish to attempt finding a trace at that 
late day, that in my weak condition it was worse 
than folly, and that I should not think of it, at least 
until I was strong ; I should only make myself ill 
again. 

“ It was true that I could not get about much, 
yet I employed two of the best detectives in New 
Orleans, and helped them all I could by telling 
them what I knew of the circumstances, describing 
again and again the woman’s face. But it was 
little I myself could do— nothing but watch for the 
face ; and I never ceased to look for that. 

“ The old physician who had attended me during 
my long illness was very kind. I believe he was 
sincerely my friend, and wished to aid me. He 
would come to the inn and take me with him in his 
drives when he went about among his patients. I 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


267 


spent hours at a time in his carriage, always look- 
ing anxiously, eagerly for the dark, bitter face, as I 
saw it framed in by the shrubbery, but never finding 
it. Many other kind friends among the people of 
New Orleans would have aided me materially if 
they could have done so. They did help me with 
their sympathy and kind words to bear the burden 
which sometimes seemed too heavy. Caleb was with 
me much of the time, spending days and nights 
with me at my rooms. He was always anxious to 
hear of the progress the detectives were making, 
but never appeared hopeful. I did not wonder so 
much at this ; time was dragging wearily to him. 
He was betrothed to a beautiful young woman, a 
wealthy heiress to whom he was to have been mar- 
ried before this ; but the wedding day had been 
postponed on account of the terrible sorrow in his 
family. 

“He was growing impatient of the delay, and I 
felt sorry for him. Perhaps I was not as sorry as 
he thought I ought to have been, for to me it seemed 
so small a thing to fret over and be impatient 
about, wdien he could see his betrothed and be with 
her at any hour of the day. He said lie liked to be 
with me as much of the time as he could, and in my 
loneliness and helplessness I learned to look up to 
him and to lean on him. I would have reached out 
my hands to any human being who might have 
been associated with me at that time. I was so 
lonely and despairing, and he was her brother, and 
he came to have a much stronger influence over 
me than anyone else ever had before, and to-day I 
always feel it when in his presence. There was one 


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point, however, on which he was powerless to move 
me. I would not discharge the detectives and give 
up the search for the murderer of my loved one. 
He thought I was foolish and stubborn. Well, I 
may have seemed so, but it was like tearing out my 
heart to think of relinquishing the search. It was 
sadly true that I had nothing yet on which to build 
any hopes of success, and the weeks passed quickly 
by, as they ever do, whether we run with swift 
pulses that leap for joy, or go wearily on life’s way 
with the slow, dragging steps of sorrow. 

“ The detectives could find no clue, and were 
ready to give up the search if I would say they 
might, but I would not say the word. 

“ Things were in this state, when one morning 
Caleb burst into my room in great agitation. His 
face was pale and haggard, and his eyes were not 
pleasant to look at ; his voice was hoarse with pas- 
sion, and he flung out his words impetuously. 

“ ‘ Do you know what this cursed delay has cost 
me ? ’ he cried. ‘ Read that ! ’ and he threw on to the 
table a letter. I was shocked at his language, but 
he was in such a state of excitement that I forgave 
him, and after I had read the letter I thought no 
more of it. This was the letter : 

“ ‘ Caleb Harvey : 

“ ‘ Sir : 

“ ‘I take this means of informing you that the 
story of your perfidy to that young girl, which 
drove her to attempt your life, is known to me and 
to my ward, 

“ ‘ Your engagement with Miss Flemming is at 


A HOMAN CE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


269 


an end, and you will hereafter consider yourself a 
stranger to my household, where your coming 
would be looked upon as an intrusion. 

“ ‘ James Thorne . 5 

“ This was the strange letter I read. I was in- 
deed astonished and disturbed. James Thorne was 
the guardian of Miss Flemming, the heiress to whom 
Caleb was betrothed, 

“ ‘ What does it mean, Caleb? 5 I inquired, with 
sincere sympathy. 

‘ ‘ ‘ What does it mean ? 5 he gasped fiercely. ‘ I 
should think you might understand plain English 
when it’s before you ? 5 

“ ‘ But, Caleb, what is it all about ? Tell me 
what he means, 5 I urged, for I was sorrowful for 
him. 

“ ‘ What is it all about ? 5 he almost shrieked, in 
his anger and excitement tramping back and forth 
across the room furiously. ‘What could it be 
about but a lot of damned rubbish which has 
reached his ears ? And he takes his high horse and 
treats me to this ; 5 and curses rained from his lips. 

“ ‘ But stop, 5 1 entreated. ‘You may be able to 
explain it all to Mr. Thorne. Write and explain to 
him. Can you not ? 5 

“ ‘ Explain to him ! 5 he groaned. ‘No, unfortu- 
nately, I cannot make matters any plainer ; they 
are too plain now by half. 5 

“ ‘Do yqu mean, Caleb, that it is true what he 
says ? 5 I asked earnestly, for I could not bring my- 
self to think it of him. 

“ Then he faced about toward me and looked me 


270 


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straight in the eyes, his hands thrust nervously 
down into his pockets. He stood as still as a statue, 
and spoke with an even voice and with a deliber- 
ation that proved to me that he was speaking des- 
perately, and speaking the truth. 

“ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘ I mean that it is true, only I 
never promised to marry the girl. I did have a 
fancy for her, and would have continued to provide 
for her, but, you see, I couldn’t marry her.’ He 
faltered, and shifted his eyes uneasily from my 
face, but went on : 

“‘Don’t you see I couldn’t, and ruin my pros- 
pects for life ? She was not my equal ; she was hut 
a French- Acadian ; and when I told her plainly that 
I could not and would not marry her, she swore by 
everything holy and sacred to have her revenge, 
swore that she would kill me. And then she began 
following me to even my home, lurking about the 
grounds, and you know what followed ; she shot at 
me. But I swear to you I did not believe she would 
try to take my life, or that there was any danger 
to me or to anyone. How could I ? I swear it,’ he 
said, as he looked at my face. 

“I felt as though the touch of death was on me. 
All the blood in my body seemed concentrating in 
my heart. He talked on, but I did not comprehend 
his words. Every faculty was paralyzed, for how 
long I do not know. Then, as a mighty torrent 
bursts forth, the blood surged through my veins 
with throbs of pain. I saw it all ; the face in the 
shrubbery, the girl whom Caleb Harvey had be- 
trayed and cast off — she was the murderer of my 
betrothed wife, my darling ! 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


271 


“It was easy reading now, in the light of his 
confession. And her brother had known from the 
first ; he had labored to shield the murderer of his 
sister from discovery and punishment, perhaps had 
concealed her. I knew now whence came the secret 
opposition that had paralyzed all my efforts. The 
detectives had not been mistaken, as I had thought. 

“ I rose to my feet, and pointing to the door, said : 
‘ Go ! out of my sight ! I never wish to hear your 
voice or look upon your face again.’ 

“ For an instant he shrank from me, but my 
words were as unavailing as a passing breath of a 
summer morn against the rugged mountain. He 
gathered himself together and prepared to oppose 
his strength and iron will against my enfeebled and 
suffering powers. Standing before me he said reso- 
lutely : 

“ ‘No, I will not go ! I will stay where I am 
until you listen to me. There is nothing more to 
be done ; everything is ended for us both. The 
Acadian girl, Mercedes La Clere, is dead. There is 
no murderer to punish. She died less than a week 
ago.’ 

“ He paused, that I might have time to realize 
the full meaning of his words. 

“ ‘ You knew this,’ I cried, ‘ and knew where she 
was hiding, and shielded her, the murderer of your 
own sister ? ’ 

“ ‘ I did not know where she was,’ he exclaimed ; 
c I swear I did not. It is true, I did not want you 
to find her, for I knew she had not meant to do it ; 
that it was I she intended to kill. God, man ! do 
you think I should have set the officers on her track 


272 


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and dragged her up for punishment, and brought 
disgrace and sorrow on my family ? They have had 
trouble enough already . 5 

“ ‘You forget to add , 5 I retorted, ‘ that it would 
have ruined your prospects of marrying a wealthy 
woman . 5 

“‘No, I do not , 5 he answered almost wearily, 
and without a trace of anger. ‘ I am not likely to 
forget that I have lost the woman I love, but I give 
you my solemn word I did not know where Mer- 
cedes was. She disappeared so suddenly and 
entirely from all her old haunts that I was puzzled. 
I had them watched, but could find no clue to her 
whereabouts . 5 

“‘How do you know she is dead? How do 
I know that you are speaking th$ truth ? 5 I de- 
manded, seeking to justify my suspicions of his 
honesty. 

“I am speaking the truth. She is dead. The 
priest who took her dying confession carried it to 
James Thorne, Marie’s guardian. It is all true, 
and it is so horribly, damnably true, too, that life is 
over for me here. I shall leave this place forever . 5 
When he said that, he turned white and sat down. 
His mouth twitched nervously. 

“‘Don’t cast me off, Henry , 5 he pleaded. ‘Let 
us leave here together, and go where we will never 
hear this talked of. I cannot endure anything 
more. Surely I have been punished enough. I 
have suffered, God knows. We have both suffered. 
Let us go away . 5 

“I was moved by his words, but would not an- 
swer as he wished. I would see this priest ; I must 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


273 


hear for myself that what Caleb had told me was 
true ; I would not remain with a doubt in my mind. 
Caleb would rather I should not see the priest, but 
he gave me directions where to find him. 

6 4 It was in one of the suburbs of New Orleans 
where a part of the old French settlement had been, 
and there I found him, a venerable father among 
his poor and lowly people, sacrificing all to them, 
laboring assiduously for their welfare, though bur- 
dened with the weight of three score years and ten. 
Those years of loving, unselfish ministry had made 
him almost divinely sympathetic with those who 
sorrowed, his judgment more merciful, his words 
of comfort more tender, his counsels more wise. I 
shall never forget the hour I passed with him, never 
outlive the influences that sprang from the time 
spent with the venerable priest of that lowly parish 
in the poor district of New Orleans. 

“What Caleb had told me was true, but he had 
not told me all. The French-Acadian girl was 
dead, but she had died giving birth to a child of 
which Harvey was the father. 

“ ‘ The poor child, 5 said the priest, pityingly, 6 was 
almost crazed when she knew what she had done. 
She had meant to kill him, and then give herself 
up to the officers of the law. “ Why,” she cried 
despairingly, “was I the sport of so cruel a fate? 
Why did the deadly bullet speed amiss and pierce 
the heart of that pure and innocent girl ? And 
shivering and starting like some hunted thing at 
every shadow, shrinking at every sough of the wind 
through the trees, the girl fled in terror through 
the darkness to the lonely swamps, and begged the 


274 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


sheltering protection of some negroes whom she 
had known in her childhood, and with whom she 
remained hidden in safety, bless the Virgin Mary, 
until the hour of her peril, when she had sent for 
him. She mourned bitterly, the priest said, for the 
crime she had unintentionally committed, and left 
her confession with him, to be used in case anyone 
else were charged with the murder. But he had 
thought it right to use it in the way he had, for the 
mother of Marie Flemming, Caleb Harvey’s be- 
trothed, had been a beloved member of his parish, and 
at her deathbed he had promised to watch over and 
befriend her child. When he learned the character 
of the man whom the daughter was about to marry, 
he had gone to her, but she refused to believe the 
story or to give him up. Then he went to her 
guardian, Mr. Thorne, and laid before him the con- 
fession, and told him the story of the dead girl. 
Mr. Thorne had been justly indignant, and acted 
promptly and decisively in the matter, dismissing 
Harvey in words not to be disregarded. This I 
knew from the letter I had read. If Marie Flem- 
ming married against his wushes or without his 
consent, she should not control her fortune. There 
was no appeal from her guardian’s decision. 

“ When I asked the priest for advice, he said, 

‘ Go back to your Virginia home, take up the duties 
of your life there, and be as merciful as you can find 
it in your heart to be to all the erring and sinful of 
God’s creatures.’ 

66 1 have tried faithfully to do so. I know now 
that I have been merciful to weakness, which is 
sin. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


275 


44 It was late when I returned to my rooms after 
visiting the priest, but Caleb was there to meet me, 
nor did he leave until I had consented to quit the 
city with him. I do not know how I was won to 
his wishes. I felt deeply the truth of his words : 
4 There is nothing more for us to do. Life is over 
for us here. Let us go away and begin again. 5 

44 Life was over for me, wherever I might be. 
Something had gone out of it that could never re- 
turn. I was indifferent to what the future might 
bring. The words of the aged priest, 4 Go home 
and be merciful, 5 rang in my ears day and night, 
and became my beacon-light on that desolate waste 
of troubled waters. My soul fastened upon them. 
They led me. Within twenty-four hours we had 
left New Orleans forever. 55 

44 October 18th : We came here to my old home, 
and settled down quietly. I was still in poor 
health and unable to go about much. Caleb stayed 
with me for some weeks, but he grew restless and 
discontented, and it was a relief when he finally 
said that he must go away and study law in earnest. 
He had read only for pastime before ; now he de- 
clared his intention of making it his life-work. He 
was without funds, and I was pleased to help him 
to his desires ; so he went away to a small college 
town. I do not remember the name of the place, 
but it was near the Maryland line. He remained 
almost two years. I heard from him occasionally 
only, for Caleb was never a prolific correspondent. 
After he had taken his examination and was ready 
for admission to the bar, he paid me a short visit 


276 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


and told me that he meant to make a beginning in 
the practice of his profession in Richmond. 

“I was pleased to hear this, I told him ; it would 
not be so far away but that he could come up often 
and spend a day or night with me, and he would be 
where he could attend to my business, which would 
be a relief to me, and make a beginning for him. 
So I gave him certain claims to adjust, and full in- 
structions about my affairs, putting everything into 
his hands ; my health was so variable and uncer- 
tain that I could count on being able to leave the 
house only on my best days. 

“ Before Caleb left he told me something by 
which I was sorely grieved. He meant to change 
his name, he said. It should be as though he was 
dead, and under a new name he would build up a 
reputation for himself and create a new life. He 
would succeed in his profession ; he would work 
early and late to do it. He knew he could make 
money and independence for himself, and he would 
not be bound by the old name. 

“I said all I could to him to dissuade him. It 
was a wrong plan, I told him, and would surely 
work him regret some day, if not harm. But he 
would not listen. I then told him that he need 
not take charge of my business ; but he paid no 
heed to my wishes, for, shortly after he went to 
Richmond, he sent me some papers to sign and re- 
turn to him, with an envelope already addressed 
for me to use, directed to J. C. Harris. That was 
the name he was known by there, and I was obliged 
by the force of these circumstances to submit to 
and in a manner aid what I felt to be wrong. How 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


277 


often it is that we are the unwilling instrument in 
another’s hand for evil ! 

“ The years passed on, with their changes, their 
joys and sorrows. Iliad lived quietly, which was in 
my favor. In fact I had about regained my shattered 
health, and was making preparations to again take 
up an active life, and plant extensively. To this 
end I had taken a long day’s journey on horseback 
to engage an overseer who had worked for me in 
former times. The weather was warm and spring- 
like when I left home, but during my return journey 
a heavy rain set in when I was yet many miles from 
home and before I could reach shelter of any kind. 
I got thoroughly wet, and, to make matters worse, 
the weather suddenly turned cold. I was chilled 
and contracted a severe cold which brought me 
into a rheumatic fever, from the consequences of 
which I have ever since suffered, being unable in 
damp weather to leave the house and ofttimes my 
bed. I realized that I must abandon the thought 
of managing my estate ; so I disposed of my field 
hands, let a portion of the plantation to an adjoining 
planter, and prepared to live the only kind of exist- 
ence I seemed now fitted for, a quiet, secluded life. 
Caleb, for so I will still call him, had again and 
again urged me to sell my slaves and invest my 
money in stocks and securities, giving as his reason 
that my health was too delicate for active life. 

“ I afterward learned that it was his own interest 
he was considering by this advice, and not mine, 
as he contrived to net a very handsome income from 
the investments, over and above what I received. 


278 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


I also learned that he had changed his name more 
than a year before he spoke to me of his intention 
to do so, and that in many ways he had been un- 
scrupulous and insincere. 

“ Caleb Harvey has fulfilled the promise he made 
for himself. He has become one of the first lawyers 
in Richmond. His practice is large, he has money 
invested, and is prosperous. What may the end 
be ? I ask myself. Do men who act wickedly and 
wrong their fellow-man go free always ? Does pun- 
ishment never overtake them in this world ? 

“ Some months since, I laid my pen down and said 
that my story was finished. I have just learned 
that my next of kin, my one remaining relative, is 
a young woman, and somehow I am glad that a 
gentle-natured woman is to come into this old house 
after me. 

“ Later : — I have had a new experience to-day, 
a message from that long-dead past which I had 
thought forever buried in silence as deep as the tomb. 
A letter has come to me from the old physician who 
attended me through that long illness in New Or- 
leans. He has grown old and given up practice, he 
writes, and time has hung heavily on his hands. In 
his abundant leisure he sought distraction in look- 
ing over his old papers. Among them he found one 
of my visiting cards which bore my address, and 
from a kindly impulse he sought now to learn of me. 
He spoke of Caleb Harvey ; of his early death. It 
caused me great surprise that the report of his death 
should have existed there so long without contradic- 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


279 


tion. Caleb must have known of it. And for the 
first time, I learned, too, of a report which I never 
knew existed, a story so outrageous that I am filled 
with a terrible anger whenever I think of it. The 
story was that a young girl whom I had betrayed 
and cast off had in her jealous rage murdered my 
betrothed to prevent my marriage ! And this hor- 
rible falsehood had been accepted by many, and 
believed — even by those who called me friend — to 
be the true explanation of that terrible event. 

“ All these years I have weakly borne this shame- 
ful burden of duplicity and cowardice ; and the 
author of this falsehood — it was now known for a 
certainty — was Caleb Harvey. In my anguish I 
can only say, God forgive him ; I never can, and I 
am near unto death. 


“ Henry Steyne.” 


280 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


XIX. 

THORNE’S CONFESSION. 

“ Two shall be born the whole wide w T orld apart, 

And speak in different tongues, and have no thought 
Each of the other’s being, and no heed ; 

And these, on unknown seas to unknown lands 
Shall cross, escaping wreck, defying death, 

And all unconsciously shape every act 

And bend each wandering step to this one end, 

That one day, out of the darkness, they shall meet 
And read life’s meaning in each other’s eyes ! ” 


Though early in the afternoon, the light was wan- 
ing, for the sun had not shone all clay. The sky, 
which in the early morning had been hazy, had 
grown gray and lowering. 

Rebecca Price had drawn her sewing chair close 
to the window, that she might catch the fading light, 
but she found the fine needlework on which she was 
engaged trying to the eyes, and her glance wandered 
down the hill toward the new house which was spring- 
ing into shape with a speed that appeared almost 
magical to one accustomed to the deliberate move- 
ments of the old-time Virginia builder. The ground 
sloped gently all the way to the new house ; and 
already a faint path stretched like a ribbon across 
the grass, which had been trodden by the workmen 
coming for water. The passing to and fro daily 
brought a neighborly air between the old and the 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


281 


new houses, very gratifying to the inmates of 
Steyne House. 

Some one was coming up the path now, “ a slip 
of a black boy,” as Miss Price said when she had 
changed her glasses. He was making his way lei- 
surely along, as is the habit of his race, missing no 
opportunity the while to amuse himself by flinging 
small stones at the fugitive ground-chippy ; stop- 
ing now and then to search some tuft of grass for 
the coveted nest, with its treasure of spotted eggs. 
At last, when no more chippies were to be scared 
up, he set his course straight for the old house. 
Miss Price then remembered the dog, and leaving 
the window, went down and waited by the poultry 
yard. 

When the loiterer saw her he came on a little 
more quickly, meanwhile exploring with both hands, 
but fruitlessly, the depths of his trousers’ pockets. 
Suddenly he seemed to remembered, and seizing the 
crown of a straw hat from his head, he fished a 
letter out of it, grinning triumphantly. He did not 
offer the letter to Miss Price, but held it defiantly 
behind his back as though he suspected the tall, 
severe-looking woman before him of a desire to 
pounce upon him and forcibly wrest it from him. 

4 £ W ell, my boy, and who are you wanting to see ? ” 
she asked, secretly amused at the young monkey’s 
antics. 

“ Is ye Missy Pwice ? ” 

“ Yes, I am Miss Price. Have you a letter for 
me ? ” 

“ Is ye her shuah ? ” and the small African eyed 
her distrustfully. “ ’Cos he done say I’s ter be 


282 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


mighty shuah ’bout it, an’ done gib it to Miss Pwice 
her own se’f.” 

“ Well, you may give it to me ; you have made 
no mistake. Was there to be any answer ? ” 

“ He nevah done say noffin’ — ” but the words 
ended in a screech of terror. “ Golly ! wha’ dat ? ” 
and with a face the picture of fear the boy plunged 
behind Miss Price, and seizing her skirts drew them 
protectingly around him, clinging to them with both 
hands, his eyes glaring white under her elbow. 

“ Mercy alive, boy ! ” she exclaimed, almost upset 
by the sudden onslaught, “ whatever ails you, to 
make you so panicky ? ” and grabbing back, she 
clutched him fairly and endeavored to loose her 
skirts from his hold. Then her glance fell on the 
dog coming leisurely along through the yard, and 
the little negro’s fright was explained. 

“ Come ! ” she said firmly ; “ it’s just our dog ; 
he won’t hurt you.” 

The boy at once let go of her clothing, and ven- 
turned out by her side, still breathing hard and 
showing a suspicious degree of white in his eye. 

“ Gosh ! I done tot’ hit’s a tagger, shuah ’nuf. 
Him’s pow’ful bigdawg. Goodfi’tin’ dawg, I ’spect.” 

“ Yes, he is big, and very powerful ; a dangerous 
dog to meddle with, but he will not hurt you while 
you are with me. I’ll chain him up now, and you 
can go.” 

The boy did not linger, but scampered down the 
slope with a celerity foreign to liis hereditary pro- 
clivities. He had a definite purpose now — to get 
away from that dog as quickly as possible. The 
ground-chippy no longer had any attractions. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


283 


When Miss Price saw that the letter was from 
Mr. Thorne, she was surprised that he should send 
a letter in this way, with such strict instructions 
about its delivery, instead of through the mail. 
He must be in the neighborhood, she decided. She 
went up to her room, bolted the door, and broke 
the seal. 

“ My Dear Miss Price : 

“In many ways in times past have you proved 
your friendship for me, yet I ask this one proof 
more. Do not refuse my petition, though what I 
ask may seem strange. I am here at Walsingham 
and must see you. I cannot go back without. Do 
not tell anyone that I am here, nor of this note ; 
but meet me to-night at dusk on the hill by the 
pecan tree. I ask you to do this, because I know 
that I should not go to the house now, but I surely 
will go if I can see you in no other way. You will 
come, I feel sure, because you have always been 
kind to your friend, 

“Thorne.” 

Miss Price was mystified. What could he want 
to see her about, that he was so urgent ? He might 
have written before, and why did he not write now, 
instead of coming and asking her to steal out after 
dark to meet him ? Why, I never did the like when 
I was young, and it’s pretty late now to begin such 
practices. Perhaps, though, the later the better, 
if a body is going to do such things, said Miss Price 
sententiously to the silver-bowed spectacles, which 
it was her habit to hold in her hand and talk to, 
when troubled or when she felt communicative. 


284 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


But conventionalism would not weigh in the 
balance against Miss Price’s loyalty to a friend, and 
such a friend as Thorne. She felt that he was right 
in saying that he should not come to the house ; it 
was wise and considerate in him to remain away. 

Little dreamed Rebecca Price that the reason 
Thorne gave to himself for this hard decision was 
widely divergent from the one she ascribed to him. 
Little did she dream of what it cost him to remain 
away. But she knew that he would come to the 
house if she did not keep the appointment he asked 
for. 

The next hour was full of perplexity and indecision 
to her. She meant to do as Thorne had asked her 
to do ; she had decided that point, but how could 
she account to Margaret for her absence, or rather, 
not account for it. To a nature unused to subter- 
fuge the undertaking seemed fraught with difficul- 
ties. And she would not lie ; all the Puritan blood 
in her welled up in resolute protest at the bare 
thought. But it had to be managed somehow, and 
she was sorely troubled, evolving and dismissing 
many plans ; and no satisfactory adjustment of the 
difficulty had come to her, when old Hagar’s voice 
came wending up from below : 

Say, Missey Becky, hit’s done coinin’ on to rain 
putty soon. Is de biddies shet up in de yawd ? ” 

Miss Price hastened below, gladly responding to 
the demands of the moment, when she knew what 
to do and how to do it. There was great relief to 
her in the necessity for prompt activity. 

“ I thank my Maker for manual labor,” she ex- 
claimed to herself devoutly. “It just lets off the 


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285 


strain from the mind, and keeps a lot of people from 
going stark mad.” 

The rain came, dropping hit and miss, as she 
returned to the house. She had but time to change 
her damp clothing, when tea was ready. 

As she came into the room Margaret turned from 
the window. 

“At last it rains. I am glad that it does; and 
it’s going to be an all-night rain, I think. And I 
believe,” she said after a moment’s pause, “that I 
will spend the evening in my room, reading over 
some old papers which I have allowed to lie until I 
was in the mood. You won’t be lonely if I leave 
you to pass the evening by yourself, will you, 
Rebecca ? ” 

Miss Price looked up almost startled, but took 
time to set her teacup down before she answered 
her. 

“ No, I shan’t he lonely. I don’t know the mean- 
ing of the word any more. And I always like to 
sit alone myself before my fire on a rainy night. 
I’ll see to the locking-up before I go upstairs.” 

Thankfulness possessed her heart that the way 
had been made easy for her to keep the appoint- 
ment with Thorne. 

“ It does seem strange,” she mused, “how things 
fall out. When your mind is all joggled, and you 
don’t know what to do, they all at once just straighten 
themselves out, and everything is made smooth 
without a mite of your help.” 

Margaret had gone into the library, and sat idly 
watching Gabriel lay the fire on the hearth. The 
old man’s systematic method of procedure always 


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amused her. He would examine with deliberation 
each piece of light wood, as though it must possess 
a special fitness for the place it was to occupy. But 
Gabriel’s fires never sulked and went out ; like their 
builder, they did what was expected of them, and 
in the best way. To-night, when he had accom- 
plished a fire to his satisfaction, he brushed the bits 
of pine and bark from the hearth with the turkey 
wing, then brought together the heavy oak shutters, 
dropped the bolt through the bars, and left the 
room. 

A little later Miss Price came in on her usual 
nightly round of inspection before retiring, and 
seeing that everything was snug went to her own 
room, and Margaret was alone. 

She sat by the old secretary, apparently lost in 
deep reflection. There was a pathetic curve to the 
sweet, sensitive mouth, which made her look, if 
possible, more lovely and lovable than ever before. 
At last with a languid movement she drew her hand 
across her eyes, and rising went out into the hall. 
The bedroom candles stood on the rack, as they had 
stood through all the successive generations that 
had inhabited the old house. Margaret took a 
candle which Rebecca had lighted for her, opened 
the closet door, and passed through, leaving the 
door slightly ajar. 

Margaret had a fancy to visit the secret room. 
She wanted to sit wrapped in its silence, and hear the 
rain beat upon the roof. She was in a strange 
mood. She hardly understood herself. She could 
not read ; her hands rested on the table, and with a 
little sigh she laid her face down on them. The rain 


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287 


came down in torrents, making minor melody on 
shingle and pane. Dreamily she listened to its 
changeful, sobbing rythm, and the pain went out of 
her eyes ; the red lips grew softly smiling. 

No sound of a muffled footstep reached her from 
the hall below. No noise of a cautiously opened 
door was borne to her ear. The roar of the rain 
would have beaten down a louder noise than was 
made by the guarded movements of Miss Price, 
who, despite the rain, was going to meet her friend 
at the pecan tree by the wood. She was stand- 
ing on the edge of the veranda, her large umbrella 
grasped firmly with both hands, and the grim- 
ness of determination was on her face, as she 
looked into the night, trying to accustom her sight 
to the blackness before she would plunge into it. 
But as she would have stepped down onto the walk 
a sound of footsteps held her still. There was a 
quick splash in the path, a sudden spring, and the 
lithe, supple figure of Thorne landed on the stone 
step below her, and with a firm hand he pressed 
her back out of the rain, while down on the floor 
with a thud went his dripping umbrella, as he 
exclaimed reprovingly : 

“ Do you never think of yourself, I wonder? 
How could you think so badly of me as to believe 
that I would allow you to expose yourself to this 
storm ? I never should have forgiven myself had 
you done it. I have often wondered,” he went on, 
“ why, when a woman once makes up her mind to 
a sacrifice, she goes at it so — well, so headlong ? ” 

“ I don’t know any other way to do,” said Miss 
Price, “ especially ” 


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“ Especially if it be something she does not want 
to do, something which appears to her altogether 
unreasonable, and which she should not have been 
asked to do,” he said, finishing her sentence from 
her assumed point of view. 

Miss Price did not reply to his half-implied ques- 
tion, but said instead, “You are wet through, Mr. 
Thorne, and you must come into the house ; there 
is no other way.” 

“ I cannot do that ; I will talk to you here.” 

“No,” expostulated Miss Price,” it is not neces- 
sary ; there is a fire in the library. It is always 
lighted on damp evenings, and to-night the wind is 
in the north. We can talk there as long as we like, 
and no one the wiser.” 

“ Are you certain of — of what you say ? ” 

“Yes ; we locked up for the night a full hour 
ago and went upstairs. Margaret is taking this 
evening to look over some papers in her own room. 
She will not be down again to-night, and she can’t 
hear anything in this rain.” 

“Then I will go in, but more for your sake than 
my own, for I am not so wet as you think, barring 
my boots.” 

He followed her into the library. When he had 
thrown off his waterproof coat, it was as he said, 
only his boots were wet. He drew up the large 
arm-chair and sat before the fire, while Miss Price 
went out to remove her goloshes and wraps. 

The fire had burned out its first blaze and sent 
forth but a fitful light, leaving the corners of the 
room in shadow. It was only when Miss Price had 
returned and lighted the candles that the room took 


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289 


on that cheerful aspect which only sufficient light 
can give. 

When Miss Price had seated herself opposite 
Thorne, he pushed his chair back and faced her, 
and then she saw a tired face with lines of suffering 
about the mouth, and a look in the dark eyes she 
had never seen there before. It was the same 
strong, clear-cut face, but the buoyant, hopeful 
look was no longer there. The look of possibility 
seemed to have gone out of his face, and one of 
dogged resolution to have come in its place ; the 
look that says one is not ordering his life, but is 
making the best of it. 

The heart of the woman ached with unspoken 
sympathy, for she knew that some heavy burden 
was upon him. What could it be ? He raised his 
eyes and looked into the strong, sympathetic face of 
Miss Price, and began speaking slowly and without 
emotion. 

“You are wondering why I am here, and why I 
did not come to the house direct, instead of asking 
you to come to meet me. This I knew you could not 
understand, but I bless you from my heart that you 
would have done what I asked, and so showed your 
generous confidence and regard for me. It will be 
something pleasant to look back to, for I am going 
to tell you that which may deprive me of your es- 
teem and friendship. You may refuse to write to 
me, or to know me even. I might be wise, ” he said 
slowly, “ and not do it, but I am not wise. I will 
tell you the truth and take the chances. You will 
be just and merciful, and you are loyal to those you 
love. I know that through you no other will ever 
suffer for my weakness.” 

1 9 


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Miss Price’s first thought was of the lawyer. 
Had there been a quarrel, and had they met ? Oh, 
anything but that ! But his next words sent to the 
’winds all suspicion of a duel. 

“ It was your letter that brought me,” he went 
on. “ I was away from camp. Our mails are 
irregular at best, and it did not reach me for nearly 
two weeks after it should have come. You wrote 
that she was ill, just how seriously you could not 
say, made ill through fright and persecution of that 
devilish villain Harris. And I was the cause.” 

Miss Price sat staring hard at the strong brown 
hand which shielded his eyes from the light, as 
though she would find there some explanation of 
the feeling that was taking hold of her, a strange, 
intangible fear her heart clutched at, yet repelled. 

There was a slight noise by the chimney ; it 
might have been the parting of the burnt log on 
the brass andirons, and the man’s voice went on 
unheeding ; 

“ I came because I could not endure the suspense 
of not knowing. I left camp the same hour I 
read your letter. From what you said I feared 
brain fever. If you had but written a second letter 
all would have been well. I came ostensibly on 
business with Morgan. I had to hear, don’t you 
know ; she might be ill unto death, and I not know 
it.” 

Did the man know how much his voice and eyes 
were revealing ? Did he for one instant realize 
how sudden, how awful the shock of this revelation 
must be to this woman in whose commonplace, un- 
eventful life there had been nothing dramatic, no 


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291 


flashing up of the stronger passions of the human 
heart ? 

Miss Price felt herself grow cold and white 
with a great fear which could no longer be put 
away. For, as the lightning’s flash reveals the 
sunken reef to the groping, bewildered mariner, so 
did the past stand revealed in the light of the pres- 
ent. It had all seemed right then, his attitude 
toward Margaret, his words, but she knew now that 
she had been blind, blind. This man loved Mar- 
garet, and this was what he was going to tell her. 
Could Margaret know this ? Did she — Strong and 
unemotional as Rebecca Price was, she swayed in 
her chair and caught at the table. Thorne saw it, 
and his face paled and grew set. 

“ I meant to come to the house had she been ill,” 
he said, “ but when I asked Morgan and he told me 
that she, with you, had been down yesterday to see 
his new house, the relief was so great that it almost 
overpowered me, and I thanked God from a full 
heart. Don’t turn your eyes away. I want to look 
into them and see there is no honest scorn, when I 
tell you that I am a coward, a miserable, dishonest 
coward ; that I asked you to come out to meet me 
to-night because I dare not see her again. Yes ; 
you know what I mean. I love her,” he said 
hoarsely. “Do not spare me. I deserve it all; 
your wrath, your scorn, your contempt, but do 
not—” He choked down a sob, and bracing himself 
went on: 

“ I do not know how I came to love her. I never 
shall know. I was never a fool about women. It 
came upon me without warning. It was but a 


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word, a breath, and my whole being was stirred as 
it never had been stirred in my life before. And 
this feeling has grown in intensity, and strength- 
ened with every hour spent in her presence — hours 
which seem to have been destined to us, and which 
I could not control.” 

Rebecca Price sat dazed and silent, without voice 
to utter a word, awed by the revelation and by the 
sight of a strong man’s suffering. 

“ God knows I have tried to be honest and true ; 
and you will believe me,” he said earnestly, “ when 
I tell you that it is the first time I have failed. 
Though the hours of happiness in my life have been 
few enough, and ‘ the moments of pain like the sands 
of the sea,’ yet I have never wavered, but have tried 
to live the life of a true man. Now I have sinned — 
not intentionally, believe that ; but it brings its 
same punishment. Can you, with your quiet, con- 
trolled nature, dream what it must mean to a man 
to be forced to see and meet the woman whom he 
loves with all the strength of which a man like my- 
self is capable, and yet not dare, by so much as a 
word or look, try to win a return of that love ? ” 
and he dropped his face in his hands. 

“ You love her ! You own it, and you are a mar- 
ried man. Oh, how could you ? ” There was horror 
in Miss Price’s face, horror and censure in her voice. 
“ I never dreamed of this,” she moaned. Oh ! she 
had done wrong ; she saw it now. 

“ No, truly, you never dreamed of it, or you would 
not have written the kind of letter to me that you 
did. But I know, dear friend, that you will not 
make this harder for me than it is. I have told you 


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298 


the truth, that you might help me to be strong, for 
in the last forty-eight hours I have found the limit 
of my endurance ; a man does find it sometimes, 
finds it hard and sudden.” 

“I have been to blame, too. I see it now, too 
late.” The resolute voice of Miss Price trembled, 
and the gray eyes filled with tears. 

“ No, you are not to blame. Don’t say that. It 
could not have been different. No one has done 
wrong but myself. She does not know this, and, 
God bless her ! she never shall know.” 

“ Oh ! I thank my heavenly Father for that,” 
exclaimed Miss Price with pious fervor ; and then 
Thorne knew the fear that had been in her mind, 
the fear that Margaret loved him. 

“ Yes, the sin is mine alone,” he said ; “and the 
punishment shall be mine. When I said good-bye 
to her the last time I was here, I meant never to 
see her again ; but when I heard that she was ill 
and was being persecuted by Harvey, I felt that she 
needed a friend who could stand between her and 
harm. And I came, as I said I would if ever she 
needed me. I had to know about it, and I came to 
you. She would think it strange did she learn of 
my visit, but you will keep my secret. I know you 
will not fail me in this.” 

“ I will keep your secret with my life,” responded 
Miss Price warmly and gratefully. “ I cannot feel 
thankful enough that she does not know it, nor 
thankful enough that you look at this as you do, 
and will not try to see her again. I am sorry for 
you. But you did right to tell me ; it was the best 
thing to do, and I will do my part now, to prevent 


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any more harm being done. I will write no more 
idiotic letters. I have been blind, but wliat you 
have told me I will hold in my heart, and will help 
you if I can to bear this sorrow.” 

“ I believe you,” said Thorne, “ and I want to tell 
you that I have wronged no other woman by this 
love. That regret, at least, is spared me. I had 
not meant to speak of this, but that you may judge 
more justly I will tell you the story of my life— the 
hasty marriage which has blighted it. 

“ Our marriage was arranged in greater part by 
our families. I had been abroad much of the time 
previous, and was totally unacquainted with facts 
which, had I been told them, would have changed 
all. But I brought to the woman I married all the 
love and loyalty of a young, inexperienced heart. 
She came to me loving another with all the strength 
of her undisciplined nature, and in the first months 
of our married life she boasted of the love she still 
bore this man, and taunted me with the fact that 
she had married me only because she had not been 
permitted by her guardian to become the wife of the 
man she loved. Need I say that this killed what 
faith I had had in woman’s goodness ? 

“ I am by nature a man of strong affections. The 
love that I would have lavished on wife and children 
has been centered in a nephew, my brother’s son. 
All my friends have been men, and this has sufficed 
till now. You cannot imagine what the love of a 
woman like Margaret Steyne would be to an empty- 
hearted, lonely man ! Only to have loved her, with- 
out hope even, has brought into my heart such a 
wealth of joy as has changed my whole being. Life 


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295 


has given me no such happiness as this hopeless lov- 
ing has given me. It is my heaven, and — yes, my 
hell, 5 ’ he exclaimed bitterly, flinging out his hands 
in the intensity of his emotion. “ I am in the utter- 
most deeps of torment when I remember that my 
love does not honor her ; that it is a love she would 
scorn,” he said brokenly ; and laying his hands on 
the table, he dropped his head on them, and a chok- 
ing sob shook his frame. 

Miss Price was crying. She had never seen a 
strong man suffer, and it hurt her as the sight of 
no other suffering ever had done. 

“ Oh, do — do not — ” she began appealingly, but 
what she would have said died away in a gasp ; the 
words froze on her lips, and her eyes were stonily 
fixed and staring straight before her. 

For Margaret had stepped through the door of the 
closet by the fireside into the room. Her face was 
deadly pale, and her eyes shone with a strange, 
luminous brightness. Swiftly and silently she 
came to Thorne’s side, and, placing her hands on 
his bowed head, she stooped and laid her lips on 
them. 

“God help us !” moaned Miss Price feebly. 

At the touch of those soft fingers on his hair, 
and the gentle, mute caress, Thorne awoke as by 
an electric shock. He reached up and got hold of 
her two hands, and pressing her back from him, he 
rose to his feet and looked at her as one facing death ; 
looked into her eyes as though he would see her soul. 
His heart beat fiercely, suffocatingly. He held her 
hands cruelly tight and did not know it. Margaret 
looked down at them. 


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“ You hurt me,” she said faintly. 

“Forgive me;” and he held them gently but 
firmly. “Must I always hurt you, when heaven 
knows I would give my life to spare you pain ? ” His 
voice was low and clear, but so freighted with sad- 
ness that Miss Price could not bear it, and started 
to leave the room. 

“Do not go, Rebecca,” said Margaret ; and Re- 
becca turned back and dropped into her seat ; but 
she laid her face in her hands and did not again 
look toward them. 

“You have heard, Margaret, what I would have 
spared you had I known. Oh, why did I not know 
that you were near me ? ” Thorne was saying, al- 
most hopelessly impatient. “ It was hard enough 
to feel that I had weakly sinned against you, but 
hardest of all to bear is the thought that you must 
suffer for my weakness. I deserve it all, my pun- 
ishment, your scorn even, but you — it is too cruel ; 
I cannot forgive myself, nor ask you to forgive 
me.” 

“ Listen to me ! ” said Margaret ; and through her 
sweet low voice there ran a vibrant note which 
thrilled to its depths the heart of the despairing 
man before her. In her clear, truthful eyes there 
shone a purpose, born of the deepest emotions of the 
human heart ; and when such a purpose is born, 
then soul speaks to soul ; there is no reserve. The 
selfish shams and trivialities of life are forgotten ; 
they find no room for utterance ; they are blotted 
out. 

“ Listen ! ” she said. “You shall not blame your- 
self so severely ; you will not, when I have told you 


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297 


that you have not sinned alone. If you have sinned 
in loving me, then too have I sinned ; for I love 
you.” 

“ Margaret ! ” 

Wild astonishment, joy, unbelief, remorse, all 
struggled for utterance in that one word as it hurst 
from the man’s lips. Then he looked at her in si- 
lence, and felt as though his soul was trying to free 
itself from the body ; that he was being hurled into 
chaos. But with an effort of his iron will, he plucked 
himself back to the firm ground of reason. He bent 
a little toward her, and there was again that strange 
impelling power in his eyes as they rested on hers 
which she had seen there once before. 

“You are not letting your womanly sympathy 
for — for me make you say these things, are you ?” 

“ Need you ask that ? ” she said quietly. “No, it 
is not that. It is in justice to you that I tell the 
truth and take away the sting you have suffered 
in thinking you had sinned against me. I could 
not let you go on thinking that, could I ? ” 

“Yes, you could ; but I shall forever thank God 
that you did not,” he answered slowly, with a sigh 
of absolute joy. Then so low that only she heard, 
he said : “ Thank you, my love ! ” and drawing her 
hands to his breast he pressed them against his 
fiercely beating heart, then released them. She went 
around to Miss Price, and kneeling down before her 
took hold of her hands. 

“Rebecca, dear friend,” she said in her soft clear 
voice, “I am sorry for you. You have loved me 
so well, and have thought me a stronger and better 
woman than I am. You must grieve to be disap- 


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pointed in me. But, dear, do not think I meant to 
be wicked, or that I shall be. We cannot always 
control our hearts. Love is too strong for us. I do 
not believe we can help that ; it is sometimes beyond 
us. I did not dream that I should love him. He 
was always kind, but no kinder to me than he was 
to you ; and I never knew how he felt, for he did not 
once let me see his heart. You know I have not 
cared much for the society of men, and have not 
seen much of them, else I might have been more 
careful ; and I did not know,” she went on, “ what 
my feelings toward him were until the day I refused 
Harris, and he blamed him, and swore such terrible 
vengeance against him. Then, as in a flash, I saw 
my own heart, and knew how blind I had been. It 
was as though I had been in a stupor, and had sud- 
denly awaked. It was the discovery that I loved 
him, and the fear that harm would come to him 
from Harris through me, that made me ill.” 

Was ever man tried as Thorne was tried, when he 
must stand silent, and hear the woman he loved tell 
to another the story of her love for him — the story 
she could not tell to him ? The desire to go and 
gather her in his arms almost mastered him. It 
was only by a supreme effort of his strong will that 
he controlled himself, but he did, standing with 
head slightly bent toward the kneeling girl, that he 
might not miss a word she uttered or a tone of her 
voice. 

“ And you will not blame me too harshly,” the 
sweet voice went on, “ because I cannot look upon 
our love as a sin. It would be so did we let it con- 
trol us now, or let it control our future ; but we will 


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299 


not do that. We will both do what is right ; and 
you will help us, will you not ? ” 

“ Who am I that I should judge either of you ? 55 
exclaimed Miss Price, leaning her face down on the 
bowed head of Margaret, while her tears fell fast 
upon the brown hair she so tenderly caressed. “ I 
pity you both. I know you did not mean to do a 
wrong thing ; but now that you have been strong 
enough to confess it, you will be strong enough to 
do what is right. I am not afraid,” she said. “.No, 
I am not afraid. May I go now, Margaret, and get 
some wood for the fire, and more lights ? The fire 
is out, and the candles soon will be .’ 5 

“Yes, go , 55 said Margaret. “The room is cold. 
I feel chill ; 55 and she shivered, as she rose to her 
feet. 

Thorne went round to her. 

“ Let me take your hands in mine and warm them. 
You are not afraid of me now, are you ? The barest 
acquaintance might do this much for you , 55 he said 
sadly, and taking her small hands in his he chafed 
them gently. They were ice-cold, and she was 
trembling. He knew it was nervous excitement 
that chilled her. “ Sit here,” he said ; and he put 
her in the large arm-chair. Bringing a rug from 
the settee, he wrapped her up and went out to find 
Miss Price, to get some wine. 

Rebecca was standing aimlessly by the kitchen 
fireplace, but looked round at him. He went up to 
her and placed a hand on each of her shoulders. 

“God bless you , 55 he said in grateful, heartfelt 
tones. “ If there were more women like you, there 
would be less sin in the world. I never can forget 


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your kindness to-night, and whatever you may think, 
I know you have done right. Now I want some wine 
for Margaret. She is cold from exhaustion, and if 
you can give her a cup of tea and a biscuit, it will 
be the best thing for her ; this wine will d«o till 
then. ” 

Miss Price went hack with wood and lights, and 
when the fire had blazed up Margaret pronounced 
herself perfectly comfortable. She was dressed in a 
long loose gown of some soft red goods, which hung 
in classic folds about her slim lithe form. The rug 
had trailed off on the floor, and she looked in the 
great arm-chair like some fair, sweet creation of an 
artist’s fancy, with her dainty wrists and round 
white throat showing against the crimson of her 
gown. Even Miss Price liked to look at her so, 
though her heart was sorely troubled. She started 
to leave the room, but turned and came back. 

4 ‘Margaret, will you tell me where you were to- 
night when we came into the library ? You were 
not in the room surely. ” 

“ No, I was not in the room ; but I had not gone 
up to my sleeping room as you supposed ; ” and she 
told them of the secret room, and showed them the 
entrance through the closet. “ I had gone up there, 
and the door being open, I heard your voices and 
was coming down, but as I was about to come into 
the room, I caught something of what you were 
saying ; then I could not come on, and I could not 
go back. And I am glad I heard,” she said quietly 
and with decision. 

Miss Price was filled with surprise at the discovery 
of the secret room. 


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301 


“ Come,” Margaret said, “ and I will show you 
the room. It is only a bare place ; its secrecy is its 
charm. ” 

“ I would rather go some other time, if it’s just 
the same to you,” said Miss Price. “I don’t like 
strange places at night, and Mr. Thorne has asked 
me for a cup of tea, and I haven’t put on the kettle 
yet.” 

“ Then you would better do it at once, and you 
need not come, but this will be Mr. Thorne’s only 
opportunity, and I wish him to see it.” 


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XX. 

THE RENUNCIANTS. 

“ O well for them whose wills are strong ! 

They suffer, but they will not suffer long ; 

They suffer, but they cannot suffer wrong ! ” 

Margaret Steyne stood at the foot of the secret 
stairway, the folds of her soft crimson gown 
gathered in one hand. The light from the candle 
which she held a little above her head, streaming 
over her, made a beautiful picture, and the heart of 
this man, hungrily covetous, yearned for this loveli- 
ness. Upon her face rested the pallor of the sud- 
denly-revealed sorrow, making it more lily-like than 
ever in its delicacy and purity. As she ascended 
the winding stair, holding the candle a little back- 
ward to light him on his way, he realized with 
solemnity that this was truly typical of her soul’s 
attitude toward him ; as the candle, carried by her 
hand, lit the dark stairway, so was her soul to 
lead his beyond, and ever upward. Was it always 
to be like this ? Was she ever to be a little beyond 
and above him ? Was he never to walk step by 
step at her side ? 

Up in the silent room the candle, left there by 
Margaret earlier in the evening, still burned on 
the table, where some papers lay scattered over its 
scarred surface. And the gray wrap which she 
had also carried up lay on a chair and trailed on 
the floor, and these little touches of occupancy, with 


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303 


the lights, lifted the room out of desolateness. 
Margaret noticed all this now, and was glad that 
it was so, for she wished Thorne to have a pleasant 
impression of the room, to carry in his memory. 

It is one of the inexplicable conditions of the 
human heart that it is in the moments when sorrow 
has loosed its dark waters upon our souls, and the 
bitterness of death is in our hearts, that we are 
most painfully alive to the trivial things in our 
surroundings. A brand falls upon the hearth ; it 
does no harm, but it is carefully restored to its place. 
A book lies open at a certain chapter, and the title 
of that chapter is graven forever on memory’s 
tablet. 

Margaret placed the candle on the table, and they 
walked to the open window, which Thorne closed. 
They stood a moment looking about the room, and 
went back to the table. 

“ Are you fond of this place ? ” he asked. 

“ Yes, I have enjoyed the isolation I found here. 
But now I shall have the memory of you in this 
room, and I want to think of you as you look to- 
night.” 

Thorne did not speak ; he could not. He lifted 
the wrap from the chair and laid it across her 
shoulders ; but how he yearned to stoop and gather 
her in his arms, this humanly-human man ! Yet 
he did not, but sat down near her. She was his 
priestess. 

There was an exaltation about her to-night. 
Every act, every word was fraught with the sacred 
impulses of a pure, womanly heart, but ah ! more 
precious than all else, of a heart that loved him, 


304 


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and through which had been revealed to him the 
exquisite joy of perfect soul harmony. He knew 
that, whatever the future might bring him, during 
these few hours the heart of the woman he loved 
was governed by the same forces that controlled 
his ; the impulse of their lives followed along the 
same plane ; the invisible electric energy emanating 
from and surrounding his soul, had met and fused 
with hers, forming a perfect field. He felt each 
heart-throb vibrate between them. He looked into 
the sacred depths of her soul, and knew that no 
note of discord was there ; knew that she would 
make no moan, as a weak woman would have done, 
for the confession which had been wrung from her. 
There would be no wail over the future. And what 
of himself ? Margaret’s soft voice brought him back 
to the present. 

“ I like the sound of the rain on the close roof,” 
she was saying. 4 ‘ I had never been up here when 
it rained, and so I came to-night. There is some- 
thing I want to tell you, but not now ; when we 
have gone down from here will do.” 

“Yes, let us talk of ourselves,” he said sadly. 
“We have but short grace. You said that you 
were glad you heard my confession ; glad that the 
revelation had come about. Are you sure ? And 
are you certain that you will feel so in the future ? 
Think before you answer.” 

“ I have no need to think. I am glad that it 
happened and—” meeting his eyes bravely — “ I 
shall always be. It is better for us both ; do you 
not see that it is ? And I wonder if we could have 
helped it. I feel that some irresistible force has 


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305 


dominated me through it all, struggle against it as 
I might ; call it fate, destiny, or what you will, it 
is some force or law of nature I do not understand. 
I feel sure it has not been through any personal 
magnetism you have exercised over me. It has 
seemed apart from you ; yet I have been impelled 
by it irresistibly toward this end.” 

“I know it,” said Thorne. “I have been con- 
scious of it mj^self ; conscious of some strange, 
occult force, which I can no more satisfactorily 
define than you have done. But can you tell me 
when you first noticed this ? Do you remember ? ” 

“Yes, I remember. It was the day that Hagar 
brought me up to this room ; the day that I went 
down in the hall with my cousin's box in my hands, 
and met you. You could not forget ?” 

“No, I could not forget,” he said, “ But go on, 
and tell me all that has happened to you, all that 
has been in your heart. It will be an inexpressible 
comfort to me in the future.” 

She began to speak in a soft, low voice. Her 
face had a strange introverted expression, as if she 
were scanning her own soul. 

“It has seemed that events have shaped them- 
selves to defeat my plans, hindering and baffling 
me in the things I would do, and that I have been 
compelled to submit. It was so to-night. I have 
not been quite happy of late,” she said softly, “ and 
I came up here to be alone and conquer myself. I 
never expected to see you again. I would have 
made almost any sacrifice to avert such a possibility ; 
and while I sat here, trying to plan a future that 
would at least bring me occupation, if it did not 
20 


306 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


bring me forgetfulness, I heard your voice and 
went down ; and I do not believe I could help it.” 

The man did not speak, but waited with a stress 
of sympathetic tension on heart and brain until 
the low voice again broke the stillness of the old 
room. 

“If I sinned in loving you, — which I cannot 
think, for sin must be voluntary, — I did not add to 
the wrong by confessing my love ; for it helped you 
and made it easier for me. We shall both be 
stronger to meet the future, now that we know, 
and we will not weakly let this sorrow dominate 
our lives or make us selfishly unmindful of the 
claims others have upon us.” 

There was a slight quiver of the voice as she 
ended. One of her hands lay on the table. Thorne 
reached out and laid his hand over it, and his voice 
was low and clear as he spoke : 

“You have been divine, to me, to-night. You 
have comforted me and brought light and joy into 
my heart where all was darkness and bitterness. 
You heard my confession to Miss Price, yet you 
little know how hard I have struggled to keep from 
you all suspicion of my love, nor what I endured in 
conflict of mind and heart when again and again I 
was in some unexpected way thrown into your society 
through our business negotiations. That you should 
never suffer in any way for my weakness, I made 
the supreme test of the strength and unselfishness 
of my love ; but when Miss Price wrote as she did, 
I felt that I must see her and know what it meant, 
for her letter- writing is not as coherent as her talk. 
When I knew that you had heard my confession, 


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307 


and I realized that in a moment of weakness I 
had done that which I believed would lose me your 
respect, your friendship, — for, when you came to 
me, I believed that you were acting from an impulse 
of compassion which must inevitably react upon 
yourself, and bring you suffering and regret, — I 
felt that I should go mad. 55 Just for a moment the 
lids dropped over the dark eyes. “ Then you saved 
me. Do you know what that means ? You have 
shown me to-night the grandeur of womanhood. It 
was the supreme moment of my life. You will 
remember this if you are ever unhappy. Heaven 
grant my prayer that you may not be,” he said 
fervently. 

Miss Price spoke to them from the foot of the 
stairs ; it was as a voice calling to them from another 
world. The rain beat down above them a sad re- 
quiem on this heart tragedy, but no music ever after 
would be so sweet to these two as rain on the roof. 
They went down the stairs in silence. 

Miss Price, in the generosity of her sympathy, 
had done her best to tempt their appetites, but they 
sat by the daintily spread table in the light of the 
library fire, and in silence drank some tea. 

The eyes of Thorne, screened by a shadow, shone 
with an exultant joy, despite their sadness. He 
was hoarding as a priceless treasure every tone of 
the voice of the woman he loved, each movement of 
the queenly head, every flutter of the small, expres- 
sive hands, and the droop of the dark lashes over 
the shining eyes. All this was stamped indelibly 
on his vision. He would in years to come see 
her as she looked to-night in this crimson gown, 


808 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


with the delicate pallor of sadness on her sweet 
face. 

“ I have not yet told Mr. Thorne, Rebecca,” 
Margaret at last said, turning to her friend, “ what 
I found — what a revelation has come to us. If you 
will kindly bring it from the cabinet in my room, I 
will show it to him now.” 

While she was gone to bring the manuscript, 
Mai’garet told him of the finding of her cousin’s 
story, and that the mystery of his unhappy life was 
a mystery no longer. “ The story is an unspeakably 
sad one, but oh ! how I have wished that I had 
discovered it before Harris came the last time ! I 
should have known how to answer him, and he 
would have known also that you had not been my 
informant. He then could not have felt so bitter 
toward you.” 

“He was brutal to you, I know from all I’ve — 
from everything — ” and Tom Thorne drew in his 
breath with a sharp, sibilant sound, while the hand 
which lay on the arm of his chair closed over it till 
the flesh showed white under the nails. 

Miss Price put the manuscript in Margaret’s 
lap. 

“You see the story is not a short one,” Margaret 
said, as she gave it to him. “ But do not feel that 
you must read it hurriedly. These few hours are 
all that we have, the last we may expect to spend 
together. We have nothing to look forward to in 
the future. Let us not then abridge what we have 
to say to each other to-night.” 

Thorne thanked her with eloquent eyes, and a si- 
lence settled down upon the occupants of the library. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


309 


The tick of the clock in the hall came faintly through 
the door. The flame in the chimney grew shorter, 
moment by moment, died down, and the logs lay 
glowing red. Outside, the rain fell with a monot- 
onous drone, and wandering drops of water, strag- 
gling down the wide chimney, struck on the hot 
embers with a little thud and hiss. 

Rebecca Price, sitting bolt upright in her straight- 
backed chair, gazed lovingly at the back of Mar- 
garet’s head, nodding her own with warm approval 
when her “ dear girl ” had made her brave renuncia- 
tion of the future and all its possibilities. She was 
rejoicing, yet with a sorrowful gladness, for she 
felt that only in that one way lay safety and honor. 
But how the heart of the old maid yearned over 
these two, whom she loved so dearly ; yearned with 
a tender pity that was heavenly. 

Why should life be so hard for them ? And why 
should this love have come to Margaret to bring sor- 
row upon her whole life ? This thought grieved and 
perplexed her, yet she felt the existence of a strong 
consonance of nature between these two, the fitness 
of fatality in their love. 

“Well, love is a strange thing, 5 ’ she mused. 
“I’m glad now that I missed it ; it isn’t safe to 
meddle with. It means so much, whether you love 
right or love wrong.” 

Margaret sat silently watching every change in 
that strong, dark countenance, as Thorne read the 
record of sorrow, perfidy, and remorse. Sympathy 
for Henry Steyne, and grief at the murder of his 
betrothed, spoke eloquently in his face ; but when 
he came to the record of Caleb Harvey’s perfidy to 


310 


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liis friend his eyes blazed with all a noble man’s 
scorn of a cruel, cowardly act. 

“ The damned villain ! ” he burst out angrily. 

“Amen ! ” responded Miss Price, with the spirit 
and decision of a grenadier. 

He looked up a little guiltily. He had forgotten 
in his indignation where he was, but the unex- 
pected and friendly support amused and assured 
him. 

“ Thank you,” he said. “You are more than 
kind.” 

Margaret knew that Rebecca’s sympathy with the 
epithet had been too spontaneous to be controlled. 
She smiled, and twisted her head around that she 
might see her face, and it was all she could do not 
to laugh, as her glance took in the determined cast 
of Rebecca’s mouth, and the soldierly poise of the 
square shoulders. “ Well,” she mused, “ Rebecca 
might feel that the skirts of her Puritanic faith 
had been draggled in the mire, but the heroic ex- 
pression of those shoulders tell that there would be 
but a faint repentance.” For many a tilt did the 
naturally warm heart of Miss Price, with its hu- 
manly human sympathies, run against the absorbed 
Puritan dogma of coldness and self-repression, and 
Margaret beheld this signal defeat of the dogma 
with unusual satisfaction. 

Silence had fallen once more on the small group 
as the old timekeeper in the hall tolled out the hour 
of midnight. 

Thorne did not again speak until he had completed 
the story of Henry Steyne’s life, a story so full of 
sorrow, disappointment, regret, and remorse, that 


A ROMANCE OF TEE NEW VIRGINIA. 


311 


it took a deep hold on him. He sat gazing into the 
fire, his thoughts busy with that past with which he 
was so closely, fatally connected through his mar- 
riage. Life is a tangled web, and he thought with 
a start of the threads they had searched for that 
rainy afternoon. “Ah ! old sins have long shadows,” 
he murmured, coming out of his gloomy reverie. 

“It is unutterably sad,” he said, turning from the 
silence and looking at Margaret. “Your cousin’s 
whole life, at least after he went to New Orleans, 
seems to have been overshadowed by the tragedy. 
But it is almost beyond belief that a man should be 
such as Caleb Harvey has shown himself to be. 
He violated every principle of honor in dealing with 
his friends. All who came close to him suffered, 
but your cousin most of all.” 

“Yes, my cousin most of all ; and he endured in 
silence ; he was kind and gentle. There is nothing 
in his life but what must endear his memory to me. 
No stain of ugly memories clings to his name, or 
to this house through him, and I am grateful for 
that,” said Margaret. 

“ Yes, it is pleasant to know that. Do you under- 
stand all you might from this page of the story ? ” 
asked Thorne, reaching a leaf from the manuscript 
across the table to her. It was the page that told 
how Marie Flemming, the heiress, had unwillingly 
broken off her marriage with Harvey, refusing to 
hear the entreaty of her mother’s priest, and yield- 
ing only to the command of her guardian. 

“Yes,” she said, looking back at him. “I think 
I understand. You — you were — ” 

“ Yes ; I was the other man.” 


312 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“ And you did not know ? ” 

“ I was not permitted to know that she had not 
acted of her own free will,” he said, with a sudden 
tightening of the lips. 

“It was this that Harris meant when he said 
yon had crossed his path ? ” said Margaret. 

“Yes.” 

“I am afraid of him for you,” she said with a 
little shudder. “ He is so bitterly angry and venge- 
ful. You know how he sacrificed my cousin, and he 
has not grown a better man with these years of 
constant evasion and deceit, but a worse one, and I 
am afraid for you,” she repeated. 

“Do not be ; I can take care of myself,” he re- 
turned assuringly. 

But Margaret was insistent. 

“You will be careless; you will go unarmed. 
You will not think of the kind of revenge he will 
be likely to take. Promise me, for my happiness’ 
sake, that you will always be watchful. It is the 
only promise I ask of you.” 

The magnanimity of the girl touched him deeply. 

“Ask as many promises as you wish ; I grant 
them all, and will keep them if it be in the power 
of man to do it. Make no reservations with me,” 
he exclaimed passionately. “ My debt of gratitude 
will never be paid.” 

“I shall take comfort in remembering that you 
keep your promises,” she said. 

“ Thank you. But I wonder if you have thought 
of it,” he went on, “that, with this history of the 
tragedy in New Orleans and Harvey’s subsequent 
life, you have hiifi at your mercy. Let this story 


A ROMANCE OF TEE NEW VIRGINIA. 


313 


be published in New Orleans or in Richmond, and 
he would be a ruined man.” 

“I do not believe that he will ever trouble me 
again,” returned Margaret thoughtfully, “ although 
he will not know that I have this story in my pos- 
session.” 

“ Do not let him know it. Keep the knowledge 
of its existence confined to ourselves for the pres- 
ent,” he urged. “It is much better all round that 
he should not know yet.” 

“ I should like to make one reservation ; I should 

like Dr. W of New Orleans to read my cousin’s 

story. It seems a duty to let him know the truth ; 
for he believed in him, proved it to all by his actions, 
which is the greatest thing one can do for a man 
who stands condemned by public sentiment ; greater 
than saving his life,” said she warmly. 

“ Ah, do I not know hoW true that is ? It is in- 
deed the grandest thing man can do for his brother 
man. I see no reason,” said Thorne, “why you 
should not make a copy of the story and send to 
Dr. W . He would respect a request for silence.” 

“I am glad you think I might.” 

“Yes,” he said, smiling faintly, “and I think 
you might make a copy for me, too, for I should 
like one to keep for reference ; and with the original 
and two copies, the story is sure to be preserved till 
it is wanted.” 

The clock struck the hour again. They rose, and 
Margaret stood on the wide hearthstone. Thorne 
walked the length of the room, and coming back 
stood beside her, on the spot where so many good- 
byes had been said, and so many tales of love told 


314 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


and vows of constancy renewed. Many were the 
happy hearts that had basked in the brightness and 
warmth of the old fireplace, many the tears that had 
been shed in its glow. The spot was sacred with 
heart histories ; and to-night was adding another 
to its tragic store. But the man and woman who 
stood there now did not think of this. They were 
counting by heart-beats the moments left to them. 

It was the man’s voice that broke the stillness. 

“ I want now to speak of our future. I must 
speak of that,” he said. “You need not fear for 
me ; you have made me strong, saved me ; never 
forget that. I will not disappoint you or myself. 
I shall live as near right as I know, leaving no duty 
undone. My business now and for some time to 
come will require an active life, and I shall fill my 
hours with work.” 

As he talked there was in word and manner a 
suggestion of strength and reserve force that con- 
vinced his hearers that he would not fail to do a 
strong man’s part in the world. 

“ I wish I could feel as sure of your future, dear,” 
he said sadly. “It is for you I feel apprehensive. 
Your life here is so uneventful and monotonous, 
I am tortured by the fear that you will be un- 
happy. Oh, heaven ! what wrong have I not done 
you ! ” 

“Come back from the future,” said Margaret 
courageously. “You have naught to do with that 
now,” she said, looking into his eyes bravely. 
“You do wrong to measure the future from this 
unhappy moment in our lives. Few of us can look 
into the coming years with brave spirits ; the mys- 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


315 


terious and unfathomed future ever brings with it 
a feeling of insecurity and apprehension, almost 
awe. Why dwell upon it, then ? I have had a 
long, blessed rest, and I shall find something to do 
for others that will fill my mind and time, and so 
take comfort in doing the duties of each day as they 
come to me, though the days be long. 

“ ‘ Do not think that I shall meet them but with fears, 

That for me life holds no promise, only tears.’ ” . 

she quoted, smiling faintly. “I have come to be- 
lieve, too, in the divinity of circumstances. Ever 
after to-night I shall rest in the certainty that my 
life will not be governed by my puny will ; that my 
plans will not avail. The fate which has so 
strangely ruled and ordered my life so far, will do 
so still, and I shall not be unhappy.” 

44 You are brave,” he said with enthusiasm, his 
face lighting. “ It makes it less hard for me to go 
— and I must ; I have been merciless to you to- 
night.” 

Going over to Miss Price and holding out his 
hand he said : “I am wondering if you can know 
the comfort it is to me that Margaret has you, and 
that you will be her friend for life — and mine. It 
is this knowledge which makes it possible for me to 
say good-bye. 1 am grateful for all your goodness 
to us.” 

Turning, he went back to where Margaret stood 
and took her hand in his. 

“ We feel that it is a cruel fate that separates us, 
and wonder why it is ours, but we bow to its decree. 
It cannot be otherwise. You, in your sweet wo- 


316 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


manliness, have been divine to me. I will never 
make you regret it. And God forbid any ill to you, 
my love,” he said, finishing the last words under his 
breath ; and crushing her hands in his he turned 
and went out of the room. 

Margaret Steyne stood motionless. When the 
hall door closed upon the man she loved, she shivered 
as though it had shut out her heart. She felt 
numbed and stupid. Her physical strength was 
leaving her now, yet in this moment some lines which 
she had read struggled across her mind. Yes, that 
is it, she murmured. 

“In your life may love and sweetness linger yet ; 

And for me, O Father, help me to forget ! ” 

“Yes, it must be so— to forget,” she murmured ; 
and taking the candle which Miss Price lighted for 
her, she followed her faithful friend in silence up 
the broad stair, her feet dragging heavily from step 
to step. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


317 


XXI. 

THE SHADOW ON THE HALF- WINDOW. 

The old city of Richmond lay wrapt in peaceful 
slumber, its quiet no longer disturbed by the cease- 
less tramp of armed sentinels. No sound of mus- 
ketry hurtled through its narrow streets in the silent 
hours of the night, waking a thousand echoes to 
the ears of the startled inhabitants. The rumble 
of the ambulance had ceased to be a familiar sound, 
and would now have been an event of interest. 
All this had gone out with the disbanding of the 
two armies. And the old place, with much of the 
vigor throttled out of it, had gathered its robes of 
civil and official dignity about it, and, with a quiet 
unspoken acceptance of things, was adjusting itself 
to the new phase of life with a resolute courage 
that must bring its reward. 

It was midnight and late autumn. A high wind 
blowing from out the west swept down the street, 
tearing at casement and shutter as it rollicked in 
an abandon of mad mirth, only to sob and moan 
the next moment like some lost spirit as it slips 
away through the dark and narrow byways. Save 
for these voices of the wind the street was silent ; 
and densely dark but for a square of light which 
came through a half-window in the second story of 
the Bassett Block, piercing as a living eye the dark- 


318 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


ness, which was made the darker by it. In this 
square of light the shadow of a man’s head and 
shoulders fell, immovable as a statue, while hour 
after hour went by. The clock in the old court-house 
tower tolled the hour of two, three ; and still the si- 
lent figure moved not. Not till the gray dawn crept 
softly over the earth did the light within grow pale 
and the eerie-looking head fade from the window. 

The old chore-man, as he wended his way up the 
hill to the courthouse, the rooms of which he 
made ready for the honorable judges, saw the pale 
gleam from the window mixing with the gray 
morning, and stopped conscientiously. 

“ Wonder what Lawyer Harris is a-doin’, up so 
airly. Must liev a big case a-comin’ on, an’ he’s doin’ 
a lot o’ thinkin’, I spose,” soliloquized the old man. 

The old chore-man was right in part. Lawyer 
Harris had been thinking throughout the whole 
night. Bnt he was not thinking of a case that was 
to come before the courts. No, with the force of 
his indomitable will, backed by all his knowledge 
of law and human nature, the lawyer was bending 
his energies to the ruin of a fellow-man. His 
humiliation at Margaret Steyne’s rejection and 
scorn of him had been so poignant that time had 
not lessened the hurt. Nor had time lessened his 
hatred of the man whom he blamed for his defeat. 
It had but whetted his desire for revenge to a 
keener edge. 

Strangely enough Harris passed over Margaret’s 
part in his humiliation as something for which she 
was not to be held responsible. Every minor feel- 
ing was swallowed up in his hatred of Thorne. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


319 


Every other passion paled beside the rage in his 
heart against him. He it was who should feel his 
power to the inmost fiber of his heart. 

For weeks the lawyer had been shaping his busi- 
ness affairs to the end that he might be able to com- 
mand his time. At last he was in a fair way to 
accomplish his purpose. He had sold a half-interest 
in his law business to a brother attorney, who would 
relieve him of most of the responsibility of his 
practice. He grew furious as he remembered the 
plans he had made only a short time ago. But 
they were past ; he would not retrospect. He would 
get even. “‘He laughs best who laughs last.’ 
And he who laughs at all, does well,” he added, 
with a curse. 

While Caleb Harvey had been arranging his law 
business, he had given his whole mind to the work. 
The demon of hate and revenge he sternly throttled 
into silence for the time, and all his plans of venge- 
ance he held in abeyance. Now he was free. He 
would leave Richmond, but he would return ; and 
he laughed aloud, but it was not a mirthful laugh. 

He rose and blew out the light, and knew for the 
first time that a new day had come, He drew up 
the shade. A robin was singing his morning re- 
veille in the half-leafless branches of the poplar 
tree before the window. The old Spaniard who for 
more years than the lawyer could remember had 
kept the little coffee-house which stood diagonally 
across the street, was sweeping the patch of uneven 
brick walk in front of his door, the large gold hoops 
in his ears glistening in the pale light as they swung 
against his swarthy skin. Down the street came 


320 


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the shrill voice of the newsboy crying his morning 
papers. 

u ’Er’s yer mawnin’ paper, all about the fiah 
and de murder ; ” for the little paper boy felt as 
proud this morning in his small way as did the 
editor in his larger way, that he had so much to 
offer his patrons. 

The lawyer met the boy as he came to his door, 
and taking his paper went across to the old Spaniard's 
coffee-house and asked for a cup of strong coffee, 
which he sipped as he read. There had been a fire 
in the outskirts of the city, and a murder had been 
committed ; a stranger from the North had been 
found fatally stabbed. Turning to the railway 
time-table, the lawyer studied it with more interest 
than he had yet shown. Over the departure of 
trains going North he spent some time. 

He was gone an age, it seemed to the red-headed 
office boy, who, rooted to the doorstep motionless 
as a tobacconist’s sign, watched anxiously for the 
lawyer’s return. He was burdened with a piece 
of wonderful intelligence which he hastened to 
communicate, with excited mien and blundering 
speech. 

“A man has been murder’d — putty nigh cut to 
pieces ; he is at the ’orspital, an’ they want ye to go 
to the ’orspital right away.” 

“ What do they want me for? ” demanded Harris 
sharply. “ Mr. Porter will be here in five minutes ; ” 
and he glanced at his watch. 

“ He hain’t dead yit, the man liain’t, an’ he wants 
to tell somethin’ as hes to be writ down. The per- 
liceman waited here for ye a bit ; yes, ’twer a right 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


321 


smart spell lie waited, an’ he tole me a lot about 
it.” 

The lawyer felt comfortable with his cigar be- 
tween his lips, and had no intention of changing 
his present ease for a disagreeable duty. Instead, 
he fell to studying liis office boy speculatively, for 
the first time in his life regarding him in his individ- 
ual character. He had been to him heretofore 
but a piece of animated mechanism, with certain 
duties to perform at certain periods of time. 

“Do you think you would like to be a lawyer 
some time ? ” he asked the boy. 

“I don’t know ’bout that fer certain, sir,” the 
boy answered slowly, with his face screwed into 
a thoughtful frown expressive of severe mental 
effort. “ But I’d like to be a perliceman, and ketch 
murders, an’ see men when they’s all cut up,” he 
declared with animation. 

“ Heavens, boy ! Are you sure you wouldn’t like 
to cut them up yourself ? ” 

“ No, sir ; no, I’m sure I wouldn’t do it fer nothin’. 
But I’d like to see this man. Ye see, he is a North 
man, an’ he was goin’ up a ways to work wid a man 
as is surveyin’ a. railroad, a-goin’ to woi’k fer his old 
master what is a-doin’ the job, an’ he got in wid a 
lot of bad fellows — ” 

But the lawyer heard no more of what his office 
boy was saying. His mind was working like a 
telegraphic ticker ; it had been set in motion by the 
words ‘ ‘ going to work with a surveying party that 
was laying out a railroad, going to work for his old 
master.” 

What other road was being laid out in that part 


322 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


of Virginia but the one that Tom Thorne was 
managing ? Think hard and fast as he might, he 
could think of no other. Yet there might be ; and 
he blamed his indifference to such things for his 
lack of definite knowledge now. It was a chance, 
and he was gathering paper, pen, and ink in his 
hands as he spoke. 

“ I am going to the hospital,” he said to the boy, 
“and you may come with me if you will not speak ; 
come ! ” And he was off, the office slave following 
in his wake, in such a maze of surprise and delight 
that he had gone a block before he remembered 
to close his mouth, which had flown open with 
the unexpected permission, or thought to put his 
hat on his head, carrying it by his side as a school- 
boy his lunch-basket. 

On a cot in the charity ward of the Mercy Hospi- 
tal lay the wounded man, who had been picked up 
insensible from the street some hours before. A 
nurse was administering restoratives. They had 
not thought that he would recover consciousness, 
but he had, and the authorities wanted his state- 
ment. 

The man was very weak, but rational. He was 
a Scotchman, from a town in southern Pennsylvania, 
and was going on beyond Walsingliam to work for 
Mr. Thorne ; had worked for him a long time. 

Harris recorded for the police all the information 
the man could give. Then he turned them all out 
of the room, and talked to the man as the friend 
of Thompson Thorne, whom this poor man loved 
and honored. The words which the suffering man 
uttered were few, but, few and feeble as they were, 


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323 


they brought a wild, fiendish joy into the heart of 
the lawyer. He turned his head away, that the 
dying man might not see his face, and signaling 
the nurse, went out. 

Once again Lawyer Harris visited the little coffee- 
house of the old Spaniard ; it was still early morn- 
ing, before the business of the day had begun. 
Again he drank his cup of strong coffee at a little 
table, and when he had finished he called the old 
Spaniard by name : 

“ Paola.” 

“Si, senor,” the old Spaniard replied, falling into 
his native tongue, in his surprise at being addressed 
so abruptly, and bowing low before the great lawyer 
who honored him by drinking his coffee at his little 
table. 

“ I am going out of the city for a short time. I 
want this paper sent every day to a friend. Will 
you do this for me ? 55 

The old man still bowed vaguely, not compre- 
hending what was required of him. 

“ The boy will leave the paper here each morning ; 
you will wrap it up so ; 55 and taking a roll of stamped 
wrappers from his pocket he folded one. “Then 
you go over there and put it in that mail-box. Can 
you do this and not talk about it ? ” 

“Excellenza, it is my pleasure to serve you , 55 the 
old man protested humbly. “ I hear, I obey ; 55 and 
his small black eyes twinkled with enjoyment at the 
suspicion of a secret. With a Spaniard the love of 
intrigue endures forever ; it is an inextinguishable 
trait of his character. 

“ That is well. Here are a number of wrappers. 


324 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


I will address them ; you have only to roll up the 
paper and mail it as I have told you,” said the 
lawyer. 

Then he took his pen from his pocket and wrote 
across the face of each wrapper, “Caleb R. Har- 
vey. ” He shivered as he looked at the name. He 
could not help it ; he felt as one who had thought 
he had buried an old sorrow, when from some 
hidden corner in his life it suddenly confronts him, 
and he knows that it had never been dead. Had 
Lawyer Harris been less determined he would have 
abandoned his plan. A weaker man would have 
done so. He was not a weak man, and he finished 
addressing the wrappers, and gave them to the 
Spaniard with a banknote. 

That night, when the Northern express went out, 
Lawyer Harris was one of the passengers. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


325 


XXII. 

NEW NEIGHBORS. 

The new house had long been completed, the new 
family long settled cozily therein, and the Steyne 
House ladies had neighbors. For Mrs. Morgan, of 
whom they had hoped so much, had not proved dis- 
appointing. She was intelligent, refined, affable, 
and agreeable in manner, and about Margaret’s age, 
and the two ladies soon settled down into a neigh- 
borly friendliness which was to prove pleasant and 
helpful to both. In person Mrs. Morgan was tall 
and slender, with slow, graceful movements, with 
soft white skin and golden-red hair which fluffed 
prettily at the sides, and shone like a halo in the sun. 
She had clear gray eyes, and a low, musical voice 
which she dragged after her when she talked. She 
was pretty, amiable, and indolent — yes, and happy, 
Margaret decided, with a negative sort of happiness 
due to her youth and indolence, which would not let 
her trouble about things ; and worry j ust slipped 
away from her. 

Yet Isabel Morgan was not a weak woman. Be- 
neath her careless manner there slumbered a latent 
strength of character which, under some strong 
motive for action, would develop a force unsuspected 
by those who judged her from the surface. Such 
natures, when aroused, are tenfold more intense 
than those whom little things excite. 


326 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Mr. Morgan was rich in character distinctively 
different from that of his wife, if such difference 
be thought fortunate or desirable. He was large 
and robust, with a boyish enthusiasm of manner 
amounting almost to coarseness ; a man of strong 
passions and impulses. Such men are not self-con- 
trolled. They sin, and are quick to repent ; but as 
quick to forget their repentance. He was fond of 
his wife, and lavish in all that pertained to her 
comfort. But there could be no sympathy of mind 
and thought ; she must stand alone there. Why 
she had chosen this soul isolation, this mental Sahara, 
was a matter of wonder to those who knew her 
best. 

Altogether this marriage was as great a puzzle to 
the two inmates of Steyne House, in their larger and 
broader way of viewing life, as it was to Miss Abi- 
gail Borden, Mr. Morgan’s aunt, who was a member 
of the Morgan household. Aunt Abby, as she was 
called, was an active little person ; one of those 
women whom George Eliot designates as “ a 
snapper-up of unconsidered moments.” Yet, not- 
withstanding Miss Abigail’s energy and industry — 
her “ thoroughgoingness ” her nephew called it — 
she was indulgent to his wife ; far more considerate 
than one could have believed possible, for no two 
women could be more unlike. 

Her nephew’s choice of a wife had been a never- 
ending puzzle to her, and time brought no solution 
of the mystery. But she had come to the point of 
not thinking much about it, accepting her niece as 
she did the parts of her Bible which she did not 
understand — as being there for some good purpose. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


327 


Withal, the Morgan household was an interesting 
and harmonious one. The new business, with its 
plans and the pleasant bustle attending, held an 
interest for them all, and the two families were 
much together. 

Moreover, there is an initial stage in acquaintance- 
ship which possesses its own peculiar charm. To 
two people who possess the elements of a real friend- 
ship, as well as the camaraderie of the moment, this 
stage will be short, but it will be fascinating while 
it lasts. It is a period when we know not how our 
new comrade will look at a certain thing, and from 
what point of view he will reason in a discussion. 
We shall fancy we know, and the uncertainty 
is an element of interest ; we think about it. His 
views, his thoughts, his expressions are new ; their 
freshness and novelty please us. He is an unread 
story which we study, and rare flashes of insight we 
catch which charm while they lightly bewilder. 

Is this brief, evanescent stage the best of the 
average friendship? Well, it may be to some 
natures. But when we have slipped past the point 
of speculation, of uncertainty, and come to know 
that we shall meet a sympathetic response to our 
mood, let us approach as we may — when we have 
the joy of feeling that we are understood in our best 
potentialities — then have we found the highest joy 
of companionship. 

It was to this point that Margaret and Mrs. 
Morgan had come. They were friends, and their 
friendship had only to do with the present and the 
future, whatever that might bring. The past pressed 
not upon the present. They began where they found 


828 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


each other, and were satisfied, rarely a day passing 
that they did not meet, that they did not sit under 
the old beech tree ; it was their trysting-place, where 
they met to talk and read. Even when the brown 
leaves lay thick on the ground, and the early winter 
wind soughed drearily through the half-bare tops of 
the trees, they did not give over meeting there, for 
Margaret at this period of her life was happiest 
when out on the open hill, with nothing between 
her and the moody, changeful sky ; and Isabel 
Morgan made her friend’s mood her own. 

It was on a Sabbath day. The early morning 
frost had gone out of the air with the coming of the 
sunshine, and midday found it pleasant on the hill- 
side, where Margaret with Miss Price and Mrs. 
Morgan lingered to talk. They had been down to 
Walsingliam to attend service at the little stone 
chapel, to which a wandering rector came once in a 
while to conduct services in a primitive way. It 
was at best a forlorn attempt at holding service, and 
the three women had been impressed with the great 
need of some form of regular weekly service in the 
place, and were discussing the question quite 
earnestly. They had come to where their paths 
separated. The way to Steyne House lay straight 
on up the hill, while the other, which the natives 
called the “ side-hill path,” wound round the lower 
half of the elevation to the Morgan home. 

Mrs. Morgan was urging Margaret to walk home 
with her to dinner and spend the afternoon, when 
they would discuss the matter further. Or she 
would be willing, she declared, to consider any of 
the numerous schemes in which Margaret was in- 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


329 


terested, even to agreeing to Christmas festivities 
for the poor children of Walsingham, so it but in- 
sured her the companionship of her friend for the 
day ; and Margaret yielded. 

Miss Price declined ; she would not be tempted 
from her accustomed duties, saying that she would 
“go home and see to things.” 

“ Which means your poultry, does it not ? ” asked 
Mrs. Morgan pleasantly. 

“Not exactly; at least my poultry are not the 
only things that need seeing after. From the look 
in Axem’s eyes this morning, I don’t reckon Hagar 
is having the most peaceful time while we are away. 
There was just enough white showing to mean 
mischief.” 

“ And if a skirmish is on, Axem’s sure to have all 
the amusement,” laughed Margaret. 

“ Axem is an odd little creature,” said Mrs. 
Morgan ; “ so droll and impish that you are amused 
in spite of yourself.” 

“Yes, and her wickedness is the more amusing 
because it is original sin. She does nothing like 
other people,” said Margaret. “ But send her down 
with Rolfe to go home with me before sunset, 
Rebecca.” And the two young women turned and 
went by the side-hill path, while Miss Price kept 
her way on up the hill. 

There was a look of content on the grave face of 
Rebecca Price. She was more glad each day that 
Margaret had a woman friend of her own age, and 
such a friend as Isabel Morgan, who, she felt, would 
interest herself in whatever work Margaret might 
undertake ; for Margaret was seriously contemplat- 


330 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


ing the establishment of a school for Walsingham, 
and in its initial stages many difficulties would have 
to be overcome. With Mrs. Morgan interested, 
they would have the practical advice and help of 
Mr. Morgan, who would give them “to please 
Belle.” And Rebecca had come to think that a 
woman should have a man’s strength and business 
experience between her and the world. 

“Mr. Thorne was right,” she mused. “No 
woman should be utterly alone in this cold, selfish 
world. 4 For,’ as he said, ‘ to succeed in the world’s 
ways of business one must both endure and be 
aggressive ; a woman might endure, but she could 
not be aggressive.’” With the remembrance of 
these words came thoughts of her absent friend. 
She sighed, and a shadow lay in the calm gray eyes, 
and went with her on her solitary walk up the path 
which was so full of memories of him. And there 
was so much to remember ; so much that was pleas- 
ant, so much that was painful. But was all the sor- 
row that had come upon Thorne and Margaret for 
some purpose ? Was it a part of their life plan from 
which they could not escape? And was good to 
come of it after all ? 

Thus the heart of Rebecca Price questioned, and 
it questioned itself into the belief that this was 
true ; and a measure of comfort to which she had 
long been a stranger took up its abode in her 
heart. 

“How grateful, how worshipful we should be,” 
she murmured, “ that a higher power rules and 
decides the destinies of all mankind ! Just to feel 
that there is some Power above and beyond us, 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


331 


which is wiser and stronger than we, is comforting 
past everything.” 

“ Past everything ! ” Each heart will echo the 
words, for we may be courageous, we may be 
strong, yet the strongest of us must sometimes 
stand shivering and despairing, doubting our own 
strength. We put our hands out weakly, only to 
find darkness before and about us. And to feel that 
there was no strength, no wisdom, no mercy, be- 
yond our own, would shake to its foundations the 
bravest soul that ever lived. Say what you will, it 
is only a faith in something outside of ourselves, 
something stronger and better, that saves women 
from despair and men from madness. 


332 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


XXIII. 

DO THE DEAD LIVE AGAIN ? 

The slumberous haze of a late Indian summer lay 
upon the hills of southern Pennsylvania. Into the 
valleys the golden sunshine sent its rays through 
blue mists. The scent of dead leaves was in the air, 
and the woodsy fragrance which belongs only to 
that short, perfect season seemed apart of the sweet- 
ness and stillness which falls upon the earth like a 
benison from nature’s heart. 

In the bend of the lazy, shining river nestled the 

old town of L , glorified yet subdued by the 

hazy splendor of the season, half girdled by the high 
hills which seemed shouldering against the sky. 
The scene looked as a creation of an old painter’s 
might look, mellowed by time. 

So thought a stranger who had alighted from the 
midday train, and stood looking leisurely about him. 
The driver of a smart-looking private trap left his 
horse’s head and came up and touched his hat. 

“A trap for the gentleman expected at the 
Aubrey, sir.” 

“All right. I shall be ready presently,” the 
stranger replied, and he continued his desultory 
study of the old town. 

When the bustling station was almost deserted, 
and the last carriage had departed, he entered the 
dogcart and was driven to the Hotel Aubrey, where 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


333 


he was soon established in most luxurious apart- 
ments. Across the hotel register he had written 
“ C . R. Harvey, New York City.” 

When Caleb Harvey had made himself comfort- 
able, a messenger was sent to the postoffice for his 
mail ; and, sitting at his ease in his room, he 
opened and read the papers he received with almost 
as much pleasure as the old Spaniard Paola had 
sent them. He read with peculiar enjoyment the 
notice of his trip to New York on legal business 
which would detain him for some time. He had 
stopped in New York four days, and had left orders 
about his mail, which would be limited to the daily 
paper and a chance letter from his partner, to whom 
he had said when parting : 

“ Don't send me any bothering letters from cli- 
ents ; ” adding not too graciously, “ and don’t write 
yourself unless you have to ; I don’t want to hear 
anything about business that is not absolutely 
necessary.” 

“ I understand, ” his partner had said, smiling; 
“ you want a change.” 

“ Yes, that is what I am going away for, and I 
intend to have it.” 

It was a fashionable company that filled the din- 
ing-room of the Aubrey at the one o’clock luncheon 
that day. Most of the guests were in their places 
when the lawyer entered and walked slowly across 
the room to the place assigned him. 

He was well dressed, even to fastidiousness, the 
dark suit he wore being of the most fashionable 
make. He had never appeared to better advantage. 
You would have said that he was not a day over 


334 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


thirty-seven, and many curious glances followed the 
distinguished-looking stranger, who was not seated 
among the transient guests, but was escorted to 
the end of the room reserved for the resident 
guests. 

One pair of dark, startled eyes looked up at him 
and followed him the length of the room. When he 
had faced about and seated himself, a pallor over- 
spread the dark-brunette face of the woman. Her 
lips became pale and tremulous, and her hand shook 
as she raised a glass of water to her lips, in vain 
effort to hide her agitation. 

“ Do the dead come to life ?” she moaned under 
her breath, and a hand seemed closing on her 
throat. She merely pretended to eat. The meal 
was nearly over before the woman’s boy companion, 
rousing to a sense of her distraught manner and 
untouched luncheon, exclaimed : 

“ Why, good gracious ! Aunt Marie, what’s the 
matter? You are not eating your lunch, and you 
said you were hungry ; and you are as white as — as 
anything. You are ill,” he persisted. 

“No ; please be still, Ned, and don’t mind about 
me. I am all right now.” The words were 
strangely low and patient for her ; the courage 
seemed to have gone out of her voice. “ Don’t 
speak now, for there come the Careys,” she warned. 

But Ned Thorne, always noted for his conversa- 
tional gymnastics, had tacked, and was off on a new 
topic. 

“We had a letter from Uncle Thorne up at the 
office to-day ; just a business scratch. Everything 
appears to be going tip-top down there. Wish I 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


335 


could have been with him this summer. It must 
be jolly nice camping out. He says that when the 
boys pitch their tents they stretch a rope, made of 
horsehair, don't you know, round them close to the 
ground, to keep the snakes out. Isn’t that a queer 
notion ? ” 

“ Yes, it is,” she replied, “but I don’t see how 
that would prevent.” 

“Why, you see, the ropes are all rough and endy, 
and a snake can’t crawl over them, nor touch them. 
It’s what the people up here would call a ‘ cute trick.’ 
I would like to try living in a tent awhile, but 
Uncle Thorne wants me worse to stay here, so you 
won’t be lonely, and — well, you will have me this 
year anyway.” 

The woman’s pale face flushed slightly under the 
frank boyish gaze and the innocent words of her 
young companion, and she looked away, as she said 
softly, “And next year too, I hope.” For Marie 
Thorne, frivolous and vain as she was, in her own 
selfish way was fond of this boy, her husband's neph- 
ew, who had come two years before to make his 
home with them. He was but seventeen now ; not 
old enough to have left off his enthusiastic boyish 
manner and speech ; just a trusting, trustful, heart- 
some boy. His aunt was glad now of his talk, and 
made an effort to be responsive. She found herself 
always making an effort to listen patiently when 
the boy talked of his uncle. 

“Ha^ you given up boating?” she asked. “I 
do not hear so much about it now as I did a while 
back.” 

She was making a determined effort to pull her- 


336 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


self out of the shock she had received, and to that 
end was encouraging the boy to talk. 

“ No,” he returned. “I have not wanted to give 
it up, but there’s been a lot of extra work lately, 
and I wanted to put in full hours at the office till 
that was done. I can go on again at the afternoon 
pull pretty soon now.” 

“I had not supposed that your — that they were 
so strict with you as that,” she said. 

“ They aren’t hard on me. Uncle Thorne is so 
good to me that he wouldn’t say a word, though he 
does seem to know what’s going on inside of a fellow ; 
hut I’m no shirk. We are going to have some glo- 
rious evenings while this moon lasts, if the weather 
holds. The boys want me to go down to Dingly 
Point with the boat this evening. We’ll start after 
dinner and come home by moonlight. Will you 
mind ? ” 

“ No, I shan’t mind,” she said. She was grateful 
to the boy for his unheeding chatter, though there 
was a little impatience in her heart that he would 
so persistently drag his uncle’s name into their con- 
versation. 

But nothing that he might do or say would for a 
moment drive from her the awful consciousness that 
this stranger who had walked into the dining-room, 
and who was sitting not twenty feet away from her 
— that this man was Caleb Harvey, the lover of her 
girlhood, almost husband. And she had believed 
him dead long, long years, and all this i$ne some 
marvelous error had prevailed. Why had he not 
denied the false report ? He must have known of it, 
must have heard from home in all that time, or have 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


337 


seen some one who knew him. Anyone from New 
Orleans would have told him ; they would have done 
so in the surprise of the moment at seeing him alive. 
He had changed so little, there could not be the 
slightest doubt of his identity in the mind of any 
who had ever known him. 

Caleb Harvey was clean-shaven now. Mrs. Thorne 
herself might have been puzzled had she met him 
before he left Richmond. 

Where had he been in the time since he left New 
Orleans? What strange chance had brought him 
here ? 

Thus Marie Thorne’s mind went from point to 
point, traveling swiftly, in speculative fancy, yet com- 
ing up each time against the blank wall of fact, the 
fact of his being alive, and of his presence there. 
Mystified, and wearied by her efforts to control her 
emotions, she was glad when she could leave the 
room, and she went with the belief that Harvey had 
not seen her. 

But Harvey was aware of Mrs. Thorne’s presence 
at luncheon. He saw her directly he took his seat ; 
and without seeming to do so had watched furtively 
her face, which he remembered had always faithfully 
mirrored the emotions and impulses of her uncon- 
trolled nature. Now her startled glance, her sur- 
prise and pallor, all told him that he was recognized, 
and told him, too, that she could have had no sus- 
picion of the truth ; she had believed him dead. It 
was the same changeful, speaking face ; a little 
older and thinner, and a trifle pale, 'with a worn 
look about the eyes, but a pretty face still. 

Caleb Harvey did not make much of his me4 for 
22 


338 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


the sight of this woman who had been the love of 
his youth had stirred the deeps of his heart, and 
memories which had lain buried long years in the 
ashes of forgetfulness sprang to life and rushed 
through heart and brain, a fast-hurrying, over- 
powering host. His heart quickened to a faster 
beat ; he had never been less master of himself. 
Not since he had coldly put his past behind him had 
he been so moved. He quitted the house, and sought 
seclusion in the quiet park which joined the hotel. 

It was not a faded sentimentalism that had taken 
possession of Harvey. But memories of his home, 
his kindred, his friends had stolen ghostlike upon 
him from out the past, and wound their phantom 
arms about him, refusing to be loosed. It was as 
though he stood apart and looked at his own soul, 
but it was the soul of his lost youth. He had the 
consciousness that there were two of him, two sepa- 
rate and distinct beings. Which was he, the worldly 
middle-aged man or the thoughtless, yes, reckless 
and recklessly happy youth ? It was as if the veil 
which had shut out his past life had been rent 
asunder, and that life loomed with skeleton-like dis- 
tinctness before him. The strong fortress of reserve 
and self-repression within which he had entrenched 
himself was beaten down by this invisible host. 
He was swayed like a woman. 

Had those twenty years of stern discipline, that 
eternity of self-denial and self-immolation been for 
naught ? Was he still a weak fool ? he asked him- 
self fiercely. 

The afternoon was well gone, and the sun was 
throwing long shadows over the dead, brown leaves, 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


339 


when Harvey returned to the hotel parlor. It was 
not the boy who returned. His spirit-memory had 
lingered lovingly, entreatingly near, but at last had 
gone patiently back to that shadowy world whence 
it had come. It was the calculating, relentless man 
of the world who sent his card to Mrs. Thorne, and 
not a tremor shook his pulse as he went forward to 
meet her when she entered the room. 

The woman was not so self-possessed. . There was 
this difference : The man was meeting a woman to 
whom he was indifferent now, except that she was 
Tom Thorne’s wife ; while she was meeting one 
whose memory she had always kept in her heart. 
In the long ago of youth she had loved Caleb Har- 
vey as well as one of her selfish, variable tempera- 
ment could love. She would never have dismissed 
him had it not been that her guardian had absolute 
control of her fortune, and without his consent she 
would be penniless. So she gave up her lover, but 
she never forgot him. 

There are certain weak natures, with small intel- 
ligence and narrow sympathies, that do not forget. 
They cling tenaciously, stubbornly, to a past mem- 
ory or passion, not from a strength born of duty, or 
consistency even, for it may have proved itself base, 
but simply because they had it ; it was theirs. And 
it is easier to weakly remember than to force out 
the unhealthy sentiment. Who can reason with 
the unreason of weakness ? Through all the years 
of her married life, Marie Thorne had given more 
love and loyalty to the memory of this man whom 
she had once loved, and whom she thought dead, 
than she had to the noble man whose wife she was. 


340 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Yet there was a shock to her in this sudden embod- 
iment of her idealistic love. A slight sinking of 
the heart, a vague sense of loss and disappoint- 
ment, weighed upon her mind which she could not 
define, else she would have known that she was not 
prepared to banish the romantic sentiment which 
clung to a lost love that for years she had secretly 
cherished ; to sink the ideal lover of memory into 
the commonplace of the real, visible man ; a man, too, 
who could be nothing to her, who might not even 
be her friend ; who might not have forgiven her. 
With these thoughts flaming themselves in a faint 
color on cheek and brow, she came forward and 
gave him her hand. 

“ This is the surprise of my life,” she said hesitat- 
ingly. “ I — we all thought ” 

“I know,” he interposed, not letting her finish 
what must be awkward for her to say; “you 
thought I was dead. Well, I was dead to the 
friends of my youth, to all that life held dear — and 
what did it matter ? ” 

They stood silent for a moment before she spoke 
again. 

You knew, then ; you heard the report ? ” 

“Yes, I heard the report,” he replied; “but I 
would not correct it. It was as well so.” 

“ Do you still feel that way about it ? ” she asked 
presently. 

“ That it does not matter ? ” he asked. 

“ Yes ; that you do not care.” 

“ Yes ; I have not changed. I thought it all out 
then, and I am still willing to abide by my decision.” 

His companion did not reply, but looked at him, 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


841 


and obeying a sudden impulse led the way to a seat 
near the window. The black-lace gown which she 
wore, with the dark-red roses at her throat, well 
became her brunette beauty. Marie Thorne had 
always understood how to dress. To-day she was 
pale and nervous, and did not find it easy to talk. 
The light was not merciful to her now, as she faced 
it. Short lines showed underneath the eyes and on 
the temples. She was looking thin and haggard, 
her companion thought, and a trifle blase. He was 
pitiless ; he saw evidence in her face of the aimless, 
frivolous life she had led. Still, she was yet what 
would be called a handsome woman — dashing, 
perhaps ; her eyes were bright and just a little 
daring. 

Why did the lawyer think of Margaret Steyne’s 
pure, fearless eyes ? 

Then Mrs. Thorne smiled at some one who passed 
the window. Her mouth had still the same sweet 
curve he remembered so well. It was the first time 
she had smiled, and it pleased him. The youth, 
whose appearance had called the smile into the 
dark, changeful face, went on down the path lead- 
ing to the river, his slight, boyish figure showing 
firm and graceful in his sculling suit of white and 
green. 

“ It is Ned,” she said, bringing her eyes back to 
the face of her companion. “ I promised to see him 
off. W ould you like to go with me ? It is not far 
to the river.” 

He would like to go, he said ; it would be pleas- 
ant. And she thought he was pleased that she had 
proposed it. 


342 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


“Get a scarf or something for your throat; it 
may he chilly out there presently, 5 ’ Harvey said. 

He waited until she came from her room with a 
long black wrap on her arm, the ribbons of which 
trailed lightly over the brown leaves as she walked. 
The cloak, with its crimson-lined hood, was an har- 
monious continuation of the black-lace gown and 
scarlet roses, and the effect was fine, the result all 
that could have been aimed at. 

As they came on to the bluff above, the boat was 
pushing off, and it was but a glimpse they got of a 
bonnie brown face turned up to them in greeting. 
Harvey was startled by the resemblance to Tom 
Thorne, the man whom he hated above all others. 

“ Who is it ? ” he asked. 

“Ned Thorne ; Tom’s nephew,” she answered. 
“ His home is in New Orleans. He is with us tem- 
porarily in the office learning business.” 

Harvey was glad that this boy was the only one 

who had seen fit to take up a residence in L . 

He wanted no one about who would interfere with 
his plans. “ This boy doesn’t count.” 

They stood in the mellow, hazy light, and 
watched the boat until it disappeared behind a bend 
in the river. 

“Will you stay here awhile?” asked Harvey. 
“You will not suffer from the chill off the water ? ” 

“No, I shall not feel it;” and Marie Thorne 
glanced down at her wrap. She wondered if he had 
had it in his mind to ask her to do this when he sug- 
gested that she bring it. 

“Then we will sit here on this old boat,” he said ; 
and silence fell between them. If Caleb Harvey 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


343 


had anything to say to his companion he was not 
eager to begin. 

It was a quiet, peaceful scene. The water crept 
lazily by. No sound broke the stillness save the 
laughter of some children which floated up from the 
beach. They were at play with a boat, which was 
riding at its rope’s end. It was not a beautiful 
boat, such as the tall, slim lads had rowed away in, 
but a plain, matter-of-fact boat, large enough, 
strong and ugly enough, to be useful. 

There were two boys and a little dumpling of a 
girl in a blue pinafore, and they played at beaching 
the boat. The largest, a bare- legged little fellow, 
chunky and square of build, waded in the water, and 
putting his small shoulder to the stern of the boat, 
pushed manlike. The smaller boy strained on the 
rope at the prow, while the little tot of a girl, more 
willing than wise, hung on to his home-made sus- 
penders, and backed sturdily up the stone landing- 
place, only by careful effort being able to keep out 
of the way of her brother as he crowded on her. 
At last a merry shout from the little toilers pro- 
claimed a victory ; they had beached the boat, and 
just as their father had come up to see them 
do it. 

The two people sitting on the old upturned boat 
smiled, as did the father, when he saw what a small 
bit of the prow touched the dry sand. He was a 
weary-faced man, the father, with a stoop in his 
shoulders ; he had the look of one who had found 
life hard, but it had not hardened him. His cloth- 
ing was patched. He patted the tousled heads of 
the boys, and swung the baby girl up into the hoi- 


344 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


low of his arm with an awkward caressing move- 
ment pleasant to see, and kissed her lovingly as he 
placed her in the boat. 

The boat had gone away with its happy freight. 
The faint dip of the oars in the distance, the lapping 
of the water on the gray stones under the low bluff 
where they sat, were the only sounds that broke the 
quiet of approaching evening. 

The woman was the first to break the silence. 

“I can but wonder, Mr. Harvey, at the strange 

chance that brought you here to L ,” she said, 

“ and that you happened to discover me. 5 ’ 

He looked at her as he replied quietly : 

“ It was not chance. I knew that you were here, 
and I came on purpose to see you.” 

Mrs. Thorne turned a searching look on him. 
“ Why did you do it ? ” she asked presently. 

“ Why did I doit?” he questioned a little sav- 
agely ; but his tone changed to sadness as he went 
on. He spoke earnestly, as one who had a purpose : 
“Is it strange that a man should long for some- 
thing out of his past life ? Could no such longing 
enter your heart ? Has no such reaching back over 
the past years ever come to you ? ” 

He saw her shiver and the tears spring to her 
eyes, and his heart stirred at the sight as it had 
not done in years. She put up her hand and drew 
the crimson hood over her hair, but did not look 
toward him, nor speak. 

“Do we ever,” he went on gently, “get away 
from or forget the lives once lived ? ” 

“No,” she replied slowly, turning a little and 
looking past him as she spoke, “we cannot forget. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


345 


Our past is ours ; do what we may it will not be 
shut away. It is ours. ” 

“You have spoken truly,” he returned ; “it will 
not he shut away. The chambers of memory are 
forever haunted by it. We never cease to long for 
the companionship of those we have known in a 
happy past. Should then the heart always ache, 
the ear always wait for the sound of a familiar 
voice, the eye weary with watching for the sight of 
a face that belonged to that past ? When we have 
repented, should we still suffer, still be punished ? 
Heaven forbid ! ” 

Marie Thorne’s eyes still followed the river down 
its shining length. She was a little startled by the 
strength of the man’s words. She had not thought 
that he would feel so deeply, nor that he would 
speak as he was speaking. 

“ Why did you come to me ?” she asked. 

“ Why did I come to you ? There was no one 
else to whom I could go. No one. It is not long 
since I discovered that you were here, or I might 
have come before. I felt that of all the friends of 
my youth, j t ou were the one whom I could most 
surely trust to respect my desire, for I shall never 
return to my native state, never make myself 
known. And I know you will believe me when I tell 
you that there is no reason why I cannot go back, 
only that I do not now wish to. The time was 
when the longing was almost unendurable, but I 
had determined not to yield, and I did not.” 

“ How did you bear it,” she asked. 

“There was but one way,” he said. “I studied 
law and began practice as soon as I came north. 


346 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Time, strength, and energy have all been devoted 
to my profession. I have been a hard worker. I 
have made a name and a competency. I shall work 
no longer. I am out of bondage. My profession 
has been all to me. I have made no friends save 
such as my business success demanded. I have had 
no woman for my friend ; you cannot know how 
alone I have been . 55 

They had risen and were walking slowly back to 
the hotel, and now Marie Thorne spoke as a woman 
might be expected to speak. 

“ Why have you not married and made your life 
less hard and lonely ? You might have been hap- 
pier, I think . 55 

“ You do well to say I might have been. Do all 
who marry find happiness ? 55 he demanded. “ What 
had I to hope for from woman’s love ? Has it ever 
been aught but a curse to me ? 55 

She turned and shot a half-troubled glance at the 
face of the man beside her. 

“ Forgive me , 55 he said penitentially. “I have 
grown bitter, but I have no need to be a brute. 
Forgive it, for I came to ask for a few hours of 
your companionship. I must return to New York 
soon, and there is much that I should like to know 
about, which you only can tell me . 55 

That evening, at dinner, Mrs. Thorne went across 
to the table where sat Mrs. Yarne} r , a widow, and 
her daughter, who though not as favored by the 
smiles of fortune as many of the aristocratic guests 
of the house, were great favorites. Laying down 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


347 


two tickets for the concert to be given that evening 
at the opera house, she said pleasantly : 

‘ c If you have not yet purchased your tickets for 
the concert, allow me to present you with mine. 
Ned has gone boating ; and just this afternoon a 
gentleman who is an old friend of our family came 
to see me. He is not musical, not in the smallest 
way ; and I should not like to ask him to go, and 
cannot go with courtesy myself. I think the seats 
are good ones. Ned got them, and he is quite par- 
ticular as a rule. It would be a pity not to use 
them, don’t you think ? ” and smiling she walked 
away from the thanks of her friends. 

The evening was spent by Caleb Harvey and Mrs. 
Thorne in the deserted parlor. A backgammon- 
board lay on the table between them, but they for- 
got to play, and talked until time for the concert to 
close. 

When after several days Harvey returned to New 
York, Marie Thorne knew that the sentiment of an 
ideal love, which she had for years shrined in her 
memory, had been forever banished by the presence 
of the living, breathing man, and she knew that 
she did not regret it. 


348 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW .VIRGINIA. 


XXIV. 

“how stands the great account ’twixt me 

AND VENGEANCE ? ” 

The dead despair of winter had passed. The chill 
and frost of early spring had followed fast in its 
footsteps, and the voices of the school-children 
sounded shrill in the valley as they played at out- 
door games once again. 

The school, which Margaret Steyne and Mrs. 
Morgan had determined upon, had after much con- 
sultation and planning become a fact. A competent 
teacher had been found in the daughter of the rector 
who had been secured to conduct services in the little 
stone chapel. Through the long winter months the 
figure of the young mistress of Steyne House had 
been a familiar sight on the liill-path which led down 
to the village. 

This was the noble work she had found to do for 
her fellow-man. And what of herself ? Was she 
happy ? She had not forgotten, but the first bitter- 
ness had passed, the first pages in the story of her 
life had been turned down. Nothing lifts us out 
of our own griefs and dispels our petty aims like 
entering into the lives of others ; sharing not alone 
their sorrows, but their joys, their plans for daily 
living. This Margaret had done with her whole 
sympathetic, intelligent nature ; and she had been 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


349 


strengthened and helped by it. Into her own life 
had come a sweet content. She was stronger phys- 
ically than she had ever been, because of the out- 
door life. 

She had brought a blessing on Walsingham, the 
people said. Their children were in school, and the 
mine on her land was being opened, which was 
giving employment to many men and boys ; and 
rows of new houses were going up with much speed 
to accommodate the miners who would come to work 
soon. Such prosperous times had not been known 
in Walsingham for many years. It was the New 
Virginia. 

One break had come in the long winter. It was 
when Professor Grey had stopped at Walsingham, 
on his way North. Margaret had walked down to 
spend the afternoon with her friend Mrs. Morgan, 
and was greatly surprised to learn that Mr. Grey 
was a visitor, having been acquainted with Mrs. 
Morgan before her marriage. He had arrived but 
a half-hour before. 

Mrs. Morgan promptly announced that Margaret 
would stay to tea and spend the evening, and they 
would all walk home with her afterwards. When, 
therefore, Axem with the dog came to go home with 
her mistress through the winter sunset, Mrs. Morgan 
told her that she was to go back, which order the 
lawless Axem entirely ignored, showing her disap- 
proval of matters generally by perching herself on 
the gate post, where a half hour later her mistress 
found her kicking her heels mutinously against the 
pickets, and sent her home. 

It was a long, beautiful evening to Margaret, 


350 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA, 


Prof. Grey had come direct from Thorne’s head- 
quarters, a small but comfortable village fifty miles 
away, and everything he talked of was more or less 
associated with him and his work. Mr. Morgan’s 
questions opened up a mine of interest, and no one 
of that small group guessed how hungrily one heart 
gathered up every word which spoke of Thorne. 
This evening had tided over the long winter for her, 
and became the epoch whence she found herself 
dating time and events, backward and forward. 

It was springtime again. The April tears would 
soon cease to fall, and in a fortnight more the school 
would close for the summer. Through the spring 
rains Margaret had been kept at home more closely 
than during the winter months. Now, when the 
rain-clouds had lifted, and the warm sun had dried 
the paths, she gladly resumed her almost daily 
walks to Walsingham. 

To-day she had sent Axem on ahead, that she 
might not be tardy at school, as the morning hours 
of the school had been given by Margaret to the 
black children, the afternoons being reserved for the 
white children exclusively. This was her day to 
visit the morning session, but she loitered on her 
way. 

It was a morning when you knew a change of 
seasons had come. The birds sang fit to burst their 
little throats. The crows flew cawing across the 
valley, the grass was showing green upon the hills 
again, and the air brought a sweet scent with it. 
The sounds of the village came up to her on the hill ; 
the laughter of children, the voices of their mothers 
as they called after them, the barking of dogs and 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 851 


the crowing of cocks, all breathing of life and joy- 
ousness. 

The water in the wide, stony creek was swirling 
and fretting among the boulders, as it had done 
when she and Miss Price crossed on the foot-log 
together almost a year before. It seemed an eter- 
nity to her, looking back. She had stopped now on 
the long bridge and was looking down at the water. 
There were little side eddies and whirls, making 
protest against the gray boulders occupying this 
particular right of way, like some wilful child whose 
protest is pleasant. 

As she stood thus, with the pretty fancies of her 
brain weaving themselves into rhythm with the 
sweet minor threnody of the running water, the 
sound of a horse’s feet rang sharply on the stony ap- 
proach to the bridge. She looked up and the color 
left her face. It was Thorne. He had seen and re- 
cognized her before she was aware of his approach. 

He rode on to the bridge, dismounted, and came 
to her, drawing off the glove from his right hand 
as he came. His face was haggard and deadly pale. 
His eyes shone with a strange light, and his mouth 
was set resolute and firm. His dress was splashed, 
and his riding boots were covered with mud, showing 
signs of hard riding. Margaret was shocked. 

“ Mr. Thorne ! ” she gasped. “It is you.” 

“Yes, it is I,” he said, a gentle look coming into 
his eyes. “ And I am glad to see you, if only for 
this one minute ; ” and he looked at his watch. “ The 
train will be here in five minutes ; I must make it.” 

“ What has happened ? ” she questioned anxiously. 

“I do not know just what has happened, nor 


852 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


wliat may happen. I have a letter which tells little 
and yet forebodes everything. I will give it to you ; 
it will explain itself. I know I have your sympathy ; 
and believe me I never needed it as I do now. I 
thank God for this sight of you and the touch of 
your hand . 55 

“ Is there anything I can do for you ?” Margaret 
asked, the tears springing to her eyes. 

“ Yes ; do not lose faith in me. Believe that I am 
trying to do wliat is right. And will you send word 
to Morgan to get my horse and take care of him ? I 
don’t know how long I shall be gone . 55 

“ Do not fear that I shall doubt you, dear friend , 55 
she said — “ and good-bye . 55 

The train had whistled at the crossing below. He 
wrung her hand and sprang on to his horse, while 
Margaret stood where he had left her on the bridge, 
till she saw the train pull out and knew he had 
gone, gone to meet some great trouble. 

‘ ‘ Does the road wind uphill all the way ? 

Yes, to the very end. 

Does the day’s journey last the whole long day ? 

The whole long day, my friend.” 

She murmured the lines brokenly, bitterly, the 
heavy lashes weighting down the white lids. 

The letter lay in her hand. She turned it over and 
curiously studied the postmark ; she could not look 
at it yet. She went back up the hill ; she could see 
no one this morning. When she was alone, where 
no eye could see her, she opened the letter. It was 
in a scrawling, boyish hand and evidently had been 
written hurriedly. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


353 


“ Oh, Uncle Thorne !” it said, “come home at 
once. I don’t know how to tell you, but there’s 
been a man here several times this winter to see 
Aunt Marie. I didn’t know it then, and now people 
are talking about it. And she gets letters from him. 
I found one and read it, and he’s trying to get her to 
go away with him somewhere. He said he was a 
friend of yours and of her people ; and folks didn’t 
say anything, ’cause they thought it was so. His 
name’s Harvey. Do you know him at all ? He was 
a lawyer from New York, he said, when he first 
came here, but this letter I found was from Eich- 
mond. Do come as quick as you can, dear uncle. 
I am nearly wild and I can do nothing. I am so 
sorry. 

“ Your loving nephew, 

“Ned.” 

Margaret continued to look at the letter, too dazed 
and shocked to think of but one thing. This was 
Caleb Harvey’s revenge. The dastardly scheme was 
worthy of the man who had planned it, a man whose 
whole life had been a lie, who had beggared honor 
to strike at another man’s honor. 

Margaret’s tears fell thick and fast in the hour 
she spent alone on the hillside ; tears that had not 
flowed for herself were shed freely now for her 
friend. 

Then followed days of wearing suspense, when 
nothing was heard, when no word could come. 
Those were days that to Margaret were filled with 
the keenest agony. It is in such hours that we un- 
derstand what the poet meant when he wrote : 

23 


354 A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 

“ Of night impatient we demand the day ; 

The day arrives, then for the night we pray.” 

The mails became the dial-points of the days, and 
the closing days of the school made many demands 
on Margaret’s time to which she was hardly fit to 
respond. But at last they came to an end ; the most 
diligent had been rewarded ; all had done better 
than she had expected. Axem had won the distinc- 
tion of being the worst pupil in the school, although, 
as she expressed it, “Her bones jis’ ached fwum 
bein’ good.” 

But one day there came a paper to Mrs. Morgan, 
sent by Professor Grey. It had wandered from 
place to place before being received at the proper 
office, but almost as soon as it was received it found 
its way to Steyne House. It contained under flam- 
ing headlines, an account of the elopement of a 

prominent society woman of L with a wealthy 

lawyer of New York City, who had been a former 
lover of the lady. Mr. Thorne, the husband of the 
woman, was widely known and highly respected in 
business and social circles. He was a member of 
an old Southern family of Louisiana, and was well 
known in New Orleans. He was South on business 
at the time, but when a suspicion reached him that 
the honor of his family was in danger, he had come 
as fast as steam could carry him, but he was too 
late. The plot had been well laid. The guilty 
couple had fled to Europe. He had reached New 
York, only to find that the steamer had sailed the 
day before. The sympathy of the public was freely 
expressed for the husband. 

And Margaret and Miss Price, after the tension 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


355 


of suspense was over, knew that they had feared 
murder, and had not dared speak of their fears to 
each other. 

Yes, Caleb Harvey had sated his desire for ven- 
geance, and the guilty pair had escaped the wrath 
of the insulted, wronged husband ; but retribution 
followed close on their footsteps. Marie Thorne, the 
erring wife, never saw the land for which she had 
sailed. Being taken suddenly ill on board the vessel, 
she died the day they reached land, and was car- 
ried ashore only to be laid in a grave on the sunny 
shores of France. 

Thorne, knowing the unscrupulousness of the man 
into whose hands she had trusted herself, refused 
to believe the published report. The ship’s register 
would not suffice him. He crossed to France and 
there satisfied himself that his wife had, as was re- 
ported, died on board the steamship. 

He made a thorough but fruitless search for 
Harvey, and then returned to face life in the best 
way he could, and to no one did he ever speak of the 
matter. One last message came to him from the 
dead. When he returned home he found awaiting 
him a letter from New York. It was from the 
woman steward of the vessel in which the couple 
had sailed. It stated that the enclosed letter had 
been given to her by the dying woman, “ with tears 
and entreaties that it might not fall into the hands 
of the man we had all thought was her husband,” 
and with a request that she would mail it when the 
ship returned to New York. 

It was a little tear-stained note, but it was in her 
own handwriting. She was ill, and feared that she 


356 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


should die, and she wanted him to know that she 
was sorry now that she had brought this trouble on 
him. 

“ I never loved you, Tom ; and I thought I did 
love him, and he made believe that he had never 
forgotten me. I believe that he loves me now, but 
not as much as he hates you. But, oh ! Tom, if I 
live or die, do not take his life and bring more 
trouble on yourself. It is for your sake I ask this. 
I am not worth it. I have never been a good wife. 
Forget me and forgive me, if you can. 

“ Marie.” 

The heat of the summer was passing away, when 
Thorne with his nephew and Professor Grey passed 
through Walsingham on his way to resume his out- 
door life. They had stopped only long enough to 
inspect the new mine and railroad, which were now 
in operation, and pushed on to the upper end of the 
line. The company was anxious that he get back 
to take charge of the work again, and he was 
ready to go, he said. And the first restful, relieved 
feeling which came to the hearts of the two women 
of Steyne House, came with the knowledge that he 
had given up the search for Caleb Harvey and had 
taken up his business life again. 

Caleb Harvey would never return to America. 
He must always be a wanderer ; for Margaret, 
when his greatest villainy was made known, had 

written to Dr. W , of New Orleans, and had 

sent the story of Henry Steyne’s life, requesting 
him to give the story in whole as it read, to one of 


A ROMANCE OF THE FEW VIRGINIA. 


357 


the reliable newspapers of the city for publication. 
And it had been published broadcast, and freely 
copied by the Richmond papers. Caleb Harvey 
never would face the outburst of honest indignation 
which followed the reading of the story. His own 
life was his retribution. 


358 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


XXV. 

ARCADIA. 

“ Where do the roses bloom 
All the round year ? 

Where do the roses bloom ? 

Tell me, my dear ! ” 

“ Only in Arcadie — 

Arcadie is here ! ” 

It was past the noontide of a day late in Septem- 
ber, that a handsomely appointed carriage could be 
seen wending its way down the hill from Steyne 
House. The golden sun burnished each strap and 
buckle of the harness till the silver mounting threw 
back fierce rays of light as the blooded horses stepped 
daintily down the sloping road. 

In the driver on the box you recognize a familiar 
figure, old Gabriel ; a trifle grayer and more seri- 
ous-minded perhaps, but the same simple, straight- 
forward nature looks forth through the benignant 
face. The only occupant of the carriage is Miss 
Price, whom Gabriel is driving to the station to 
meet Margaret, the loved friend and mistress, who 
after an absence of several months in a Northern 
state will reach home to-day. Four times has the 
golden month of September reigned since we last 
looked upon the inmates of Steyne House, but 
time touches lightly, as with a magic wand, where 
content reigns, and Margaret Steyne, with the 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


359 


joy of home-coming shining in her lovely eyes, 
seems to have grown fairer with the passing years. 

“ Ah ! it is sweet to be at home,” she exclaimed 
with a sigh of happiness; “I shall never go away 
again to stay so long.” 

“ But you did not mean to stay so long when you 
left home,” said her friend. 

“ No, I should have been home a month earlier at 
least, had not Isabel Morgan w r ritten to me when 
she did of her sister’s approaching marriage to Pro- 
fessor Grey, and urged me, as it took place in Sep- 
tember, to join her at the old homestead and remain 
for it.” 

“You could not well refuse when she was com- 
ing home so soon afterward and you could have her 
company all the way.” 

“No, though I was ready to come I changed my 
plans to suit hers. It would have seemed ungra- 
cious to do otherwise, and I am glad now that I 
waited.” 

“ I was really pleased to hear of Mr. Grey’s mar- 
riage,” declared Miss Price, who had never ceased to 
feel a little sorry for his disappointment. “But is 
Mrs. Grey much like Mrs. Morgan ? ” 

“Not in the least that I could see. Not so pretty, 
not so intelligent, nor so genial as Isabel ; just a 
little domestic 6 home body,’ as you New England 
people say. But she w r ill take excellent care of her 
wise, studious husband, which he will appreciate in 
his own logical way, and soon learn to value her as 
he does air or bread, or any other necessary thing,” 
said Margaret. 

“ Then I should think that Isabel Morgan would 


360 


A UOMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


have suited him much better,” declared Miss Price. 
“ It seems to me that would have been more suitable 
all round.” 

Margaret did not answer, but shot an amused 
glance at Rebecca’s back as that lady stepped ahead 
to open the gate into the yard. Rebecca’s ideas on 
love and marriage always seemed to Margaret to be 
without rudder or compass. 

At the head of the walk, framed in by the lilac 
bushes, stood old Hagar, smiling and curtseying a 
welcome to her mistress as she had stood on that 
morning when Margaret had come a stranger into 
her own home. It had been her only welcome that 
day, and she remembered it gratefully even now. 

Fortune had been lavish to Margaret in the years 
since she came into her ancestral home, but riches 
had not spoiled her rarely sweet nature. She was 
the same womanly woman that had dreamed in 
the firelight of Miss Price’s humble hearth at Win- 
ston. 

No, wealth had not spoiled Margaret, nor had it 
been allowed to spoil the harmonious surroundings 
of the old home ; the picturesque remained, and 
always should, she said. The house had been 
painted anew, but in the same shades. The gardens 
were larger and were well kept by a young man 
under Gabriel’s supervision. The peach orchard 
had been replanted, and a row of trees, with their 
graceful, swaying foliage, followed each side of the 
road on its circuitous trail down the hill — the road 
which had been widened and graded to a gentle 
slope, to suit the handsome carriage in which Gabriel 
delighted to drive his mistress. 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


361 


As Axem, who as of old missed none of the old 
man’s weaknesses, enviously declared to Miss Price, 
“ Gabe, he so pow’ful top- lofty when he git on dat 
kerridge, he jis’ bow down to hissef.” 

Margaret’s love for her home had something 
touching in it, it was so sincere and made her so 
thoughtful for others. One of the first uses to 
which she had devoted her money and leisure had 
been to go to New Orleans to pay a visit to Doctor 

W , the aged physician who had attended her 

cousin during his long illness there. 

It was the winter following the publication of her 
cousin’s story, which stirred to its depths the social 
world of the city, so pathetic was the tale of love 
and tragedy, sorrow and gentle trustfulness, on the 
one hand, and of remorseless villainy on the other. 
She had a delightful visit with the cultivated, 
scholarly old gentleman. They found much to talk 
of that was of mutual interest in the long drives 
which they took about the city. Together they 
visited the scene of the tragedy, and the great cem- 
etery where lay buried her cousin’s betrothed, fair 
Marian Harvey, so cruelly murdered in life’s bright- 
est hour. Another day found them beside the 
humble grave of Caleb Harvey’s victim, unhappy 
Mercedes La Clere, the young Acadian girl. 

“Poor erring child ! ” said Margaret sadly, “ there 
must be somewhere an avenger of innocence to plead 
the cause of such as you.” 

When Margaret had left Dr. W , it was 

with the promise of a visit from him when he 
should feel that he was able to endure the journey. 
And what is so dear to the heart of the aged 


862 A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 

as something to look forward to, something in the 
future ? 

The sun was shining dully from beneath horizon- 
tal clouds, and* in the red reflected light Margaret 
went with lingering steps across the upland pasture 
lot. The earth was dry with the dryness that comes 
before the change of the season. The tender blades 
had been cropped and the stems of the joint-grass 
crackled to the foot like stubble. The mullen, lov- 
ing the fierce kiss of the sun, towered sentinel-like 
over the lower plant life of the field, with its mass 
of fuzzy, unsatisfactory bloom ; and the bursting 
blossom of the milkweed, white as snow and soft as 
wool to the touch, silvered the air ; the heat was 
setting it free. Everywhere was nature with loving 
palm-touches moulding all things for the sterner 
season to come. 

The old trysting-place under the spreading beech 
which her feet sought to-day was full of heart 
memories to Margaret. 

“ Here had she prayed when temptation assailed, 

Risen up, turned away, not having failed ; 

Here friendship met her with outstretched palm, 

And sweet fell the benison of nature’s calm.” 

How little do things change after all, she was 
thinking, for as of old Axem and Rolfe had followed 
their mistress and lay on the grass near her, where 
presently, finding the bright eyes of the little maid 
fixed upon her, her mistress spoke. 

“ What is it, Axem ?” she asked kindly. 

“ I’s glad t’ hab yo back agin,” she said ; and the 
manner expressed all she could not say, for Axem 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


363 


rarely spoke of her own feelings ; they rather found 
expression through a dog-like devotion and watch- 
fulness. 

“ Was it lonely for you ?” 

“Monst’us lonesum, do’ Hagah she bin s’prisin’ 
good sens she dun ’bolish de idols out’n hers hawt,” 
she added generously. 

“ What idols has she abolished ? ” asked her mis- 
tress, smiling a little. 

“De geese ; dey’s dun gone.” 

“ Gone ? ” she asked incredulously. 

“Yes, dun gone ; sol’ t’ de man what byed ’em.” 

“ How did she come to do it ? ” 

“ Jis’ coz of de ’stracted meetin’ dey bin habin’ in 
Squa’ Cranst’n’ back fiel’. De niggahs dey all go, 
’n de preacbin’ brer tell ’em ’bout de idols in der 
hawts ; eb’ry niggah, he say, dun hab an idol in de 
hawt, ’n Satan he gwine ter git eb’ry one an sen’ ’em 
to torment, ef dey don’ tek em out. Den Hagah 
she dun flop up an say she gwine teah de id’ls out’n 
her hawt. She say. she ’spects she dun co’mit sin 
’bout dem geese, an’ now she gwine ter lay ’em on de 
altah ob de Lawd. Ole Gabe he dun shout out 
louder’n de res’, ‘ Glory ! ’ Cos he say he doan’ git 
nuffin’ dun, on’y stay in de cawn-fiel’ an chunk at 
dem geese ; an’ he mighty nigh lose all his ’ligion. 
He did chunk at dem pow’ful,” added the little 
maid. 

Margaret laughed merrily ; but Hagar’s philos- 
ophy was not unusual. As long as the strain was 
on Gabe’s piety her idols had not troubled her ; it was 
when the consequences to herself were made plain 
that she acted. 


364 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


Ah ! how like we are after all ! We may claim 
kinship with the world, for there is a bit of the 
heathen in us all. Each heart shrines an idol and 
conceals its idolatry when it can, and when it can- 
not, palliates and excuses the sin with subtle reason- 
ing. If our idols were suddenly set up in plain view 
of the world — even our little household world — how 
many of us would have the courage to go up and 
claim them ? 

In the twilight, when the stars trailed out softly 
luminous and turned into brilliant points of gold in 
the gray disk of sky, Margaret sat on the veranda 
and heard with a thrill of gladness the familiar cry 
of the owls as they called in the wood. She loved 
the whole owl family ; loved the sound of their 
eerie cry and the thought of their wild, free life 
abroad in the darkness. 

She could close her eyes where she sat, and again 
it was a warm pulsating summer night. The long 
years had slipped away, and she was a child once 
more. She heard again the droning languorous 
throb of the myriad insect life as it beat upon the 
warm air as she had heard it then, leaning through 
the window into the purple night. In fancy the 
musical katydids contended amicably in the old 
grapevine beneath her window, while the brown 
crickets chirped cheerily in the long, odorous grass 
at its roots, and the owls flew lazily from shadow to 
shadow as they were doing to-night. 

Nowhere else did the aroma of the past press upon 
and envelop her as in this spot and at this hour. 
But she could not hope for many more of these 
evenings ; there was coming a chill in the air. It 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


365 


was the Heimweh, as the Germans call it ; yet even 
now Rebecca came out to warn her that she was 
imprudent. 

“ I know it,” she answered, “ but it is so ineffably 
sweet to sit here again.” 

Then Rebecca spoke of what was in her heart. 
“ Have you heard from Mr. Thorne, Margaret ? ” 

She asked the question a little timidly, for they 
did not often speak of him. 

“ No, I have not ; only as you have heard through 
Mr. and Mrs. Morgan. Have you seen him ? ” 

“ I have seen him but once since he bade us good- 
bye three years ago, but Mr. Morgan told me this 
summer that he had gone North to stay. I thought 
perhaps you had seen him, you seem so happy,” she 
ventured. 

“ I have not seen him nor heard from him,” said 
Margaret a little sadly. “ But I know that wher- 
ever he may be, he is living the life of a strong, true 
man. That is enough. And fate has been good to 
me, Rebecca. Life is pleasant ; I ought to be happy.” 

“ Yes, you ought to be happy,” burst out Rebecca 
warmly. “ You deserve to be ; you have helped to 
make so many lives better and sweeter, so many 
hearts lighter by your unselfish labors and sympathy. 
I thank my Heavenly Father every day, that your 
life was not spoiled,” she added devoutly. 

“No,” said Margaret simply, “ my life has not 
been spoiled ; only wrongdoing could do that. We 
cannot always help our loving ; that is sometimes 
beyond us ; but we can help doing wrong about it 
when we know,” she said with soft vehemence. 

“You mean the strong can.” 


366 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


“Yes, you might put it that way; for a weak 
man loves weakly and weakly forgets. Love will 
never sanctify him. With him the impulse to for- 
get is as quick to come as the impulse to love. It 
is the strong nature that suffers through love,” said 
Margaret. 

“ And though they suffer, they conquer and grow 
stronger,” said Rebecca softly, looking off through 
the darkness. 

“Yes, they must be strong to endure ; the stronger 
because it must be endurance without hope. They 
can only hold fast to their belief in the divinity of 
circumstances, to their faith in human goodness 
and sympathy, and work ; for persistent physical 
labor, my dear friend, holds more people to the 
straight path than we know.” 

“ It is God’s best gift to his children ; I’ve always 
said so,” declared Miss Price. 

“ His most merciful and ever-present provision 
surely, for in all our lives there are duties, not far 
off, but close, warm and pulsating with human life 
and sympathy ; and sympathy is the heart -beat of 
the world. If we do not shrink from the duties 
which reach out to us, but meet them with fidelity 
and courage, we must be happy. Do you not see 
that we must ? It is life’s divine compensation ; ” 
and Margaret’s bright, earnest face was turned up 
to her friend. 

Rebecca Price spoke no more, but bent down and 
kissed Margaret’s forehead almost reverently and 
left her. 

The evening had grown chill with the darkness. 
Once again Gabriel laid a fire in the library, and 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA. 


367 


Margaret had gone in to its warmth and brightness. 
Once again she watched him sweep up the bits of 
bark from the hearth, saw him draw the heavy 
shutters and drop the bolts through the bars, as he 
had done on the night she remembered so vividly 
three years before, the night that had changed the 
whole current of her life, and which would always 
stand out as the pivotal point of her whole existence. 
He went out at last and left her alone. 

And the flames leapt high. Then a silence fell, 
for only the cricket had a story to tell. 

She heard Gabriel stop in the hall to speak to some 
one. Then a firm step sounded on the floor, the door 
opened, and a man came into the room, and closing 
the door after him, stood looking at her just a 
moment before he came toward her. 

It was Thorne. The strong, spirited face showed 
clear-cut as a white cameo against the dark-paneled 
door. The glowing eyes looked into hers again as 
they had in the past. She saw him, but seemed to 
have lost the power of speech or motion, and waited 
for him where she stood within the circle of the 
firelight. 

He came to her with his hand outstretched. Was 
it something he saw in her eyes that made him drop 
his hand and put his arms slowly about her, while 
the dark, impelling eyes searched hungrily, cov- 
etously, the sweet face so dear to him ? 

“ Margaret,” he said, “I have come to you as 
a man starving, who has waited long for his hap- 
piness. Have I not a right to be happy at last ? ” 

She felt the touch of his breath on her cheek. 
His face was perilously near hers. She pressed a 


868 


A ROMANCE OF THE NEW VIRGINIA . 


little back from him, and looked into liis eyes. Then, 
reaching up her arms she put them round his neck 
for answer. Clasping her close against his fiercely 
beating heart, he stooped and kissed the sweet lips 
once, twice ; then, with a tender caress of the dark 
hair, he released her and grasped her hand. 

“ Come out under the stars, I can see no one now. 
Come quickly,” he said with an impatience that was 
loving. 

She stepped to the closet by the fireplace, took 
down the wrap, and went with him out through the 
hall and down the steps into the darkness. Not 
till they had passed through the gate did he loose 
his clasp of her hand. Then he stooped, and putting 
the cloak carefully about her shoulders, drew the 
hood up over her hair 

“ Just here, dear,” he said tenderly, “ was where 
you stood that night, when I came back and found 
you with dark doubts of me in your heart. Ah ! 
my darling, I fought a hard battle with myself then 
to keep from taking you in my arms and telling you 
how dear you were to me ; that the sound of your 
voice was the sweetest music this earth held for me, 
and that I longed with all my strength to protect 
you and to keep you ever near me. I want you to 
say something to-night that will forever hallow the 
spot to me. Tell me you love me. Tell me that just 
as we stand here.” 

He had put his arms about her, and she looked 
into the dark face bent so close to hers. 

“ I love you, Tom,” she said ; “ I shall love you to 
the end of my life ; ” and drawing his face down 
she kissed him. 


A ROMANCE OF TI1E NEW VIRGINIA. 


369 


“ Heaven bless you, my love ! ” and there was a 
little catch in his voice. “ Your kiss has banished 
the last haunting shadow of doubt and unrest from 
my heart. I no longer dread a loveless, joyless 
future. Do you know, dear, what that means to 
me ? No, you cannot ! ” 

There was a passion of feeling in his voice ; it was 
the echo of past suffering, and it tortured her. 

“ May the future bring you all the blessings your 
heart can contain ! You deserve them all, dear,” 
she said. “Yet, Tom, your joy cannot outweigh 
mine when I remember that I shall never again be 
alone in the world. I shall have you. You belong 
to me ; you will always belong to me.” And there 
were tears in the dark eyes now which the heavy 
lashes could not keep back. 

“While life endures,” he exclaimed with a joy 
that was worshipful. “Never forget for one 
moment that my heart is your home, that my arms 
are your shelter and refuge, as they were meant to 
be.” 

And he held her close, and kissed away her tears. 
Then releasing her he took her hand, drew it through 
his arm, pressing it close against his side, and they 
walked on the silent hill under the stars. 

“We will tell Miss Price to-night that we shall 
be married very soon,” Thorne was saying. 

“ But she may object,” said Margaret. 

“Will she ? ” he said, and laughed softly. 


THE END. 


















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